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- Sep 6, 2011
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Hey everyone, finally took the OAT and I figured id share my experience since reading what other people experienced was really helpful while preparing.
So I spent around 1 month doing casual review, and then 2 months of serious studying, i would say I averaged around 2 hours per day.
QR-370/96.2%
RC-390/95.6%
Biology-390/98.3%
Gen Chem-390/94.3%
Orgo-330/75.6%
Physics-330/83.7%
T.S.-360/91.2%
AA-370/98.5%
Bio- Like most people have said, this section contains a really random smattering of problems. I majored in Bio which helped a lot on this section, out of all the sciences this is the one i studied for the least. In particular i remember seeing some genetics, populations, cell bio, and physiology. Not really anything on plants, and one taxonomy question.
Gen Chem- This was pretty basic stuff (acid/base, enthalpy/entropy, redox, etc). If you majored in anything chemistry related I woulnt worry about this at all. I hated gen chem with a passion when i took it in undergrad and came out of it fine.
Orgo-This was the hardest section for me both while studying and on the actual test. Cant remember too much becuase i was in panic mode the entire time, i do remember that there were at leat 4 or 5 problems where you had to give the products of a reaction or name a specific reaction.
RC-By far the easiest part for me. Im a fast reader so i finished this section with around 8 minutes to spare. The method I used was to skim each paragraph and take some notes on keywords in each and then refer back to them when i went through the questions so I knew where to look.
Physics-My second worst both in practice and on the test. I was pretty nervous for this section, but it wasnt as bad as i was expecting. I actually thought i was going to do better than i actually did. A lot of questions using the big 5, some periodic motion stuff, waves, F=ma, etc, etc,.
QR-Ok i went into this one pretty nervous because of hearing how rushed most people are. As I went through this I marked and guessed on any question I couldnt start figuring out an answer to within like 20 or 30 seconds. That way I could either come back to them at the end, or if I ran out of time at least i would have an answer down for them. I think the key here is to not get caught up on any one question, and to try and stay calm. There are some tough ones, but there are also some that you can figure out in under 10 seconds.
Overall I was really happy with my scores. I would have liked to do a little better in physics and orgo, but hey, ill take it. Just so glad its finally behind me. For prep I used a princeton review mcat book, the destroyer, and one of the small kaplan OAT books.
So I spent around 1 month doing casual review, and then 2 months of serious studying, i would say I averaged around 2 hours per day.
QR-370/96.2%
RC-390/95.6%
Biology-390/98.3%
Gen Chem-390/94.3%
Orgo-330/75.6%
Physics-330/83.7%
T.S.-360/91.2%
AA-370/98.5%
Bio- Like most people have said, this section contains a really random smattering of problems. I majored in Bio which helped a lot on this section, out of all the sciences this is the one i studied for the least. In particular i remember seeing some genetics, populations, cell bio, and physiology. Not really anything on plants, and one taxonomy question.
Gen Chem- This was pretty basic stuff (acid/base, enthalpy/entropy, redox, etc). If you majored in anything chemistry related I woulnt worry about this at all. I hated gen chem with a passion when i took it in undergrad and came out of it fine.
Orgo-This was the hardest section for me both while studying and on the actual test. Cant remember too much becuase i was in panic mode the entire time, i do remember that there were at leat 4 or 5 problems where you had to give the products of a reaction or name a specific reaction.
RC-By far the easiest part for me. Im a fast reader so i finished this section with around 8 minutes to spare. The method I used was to skim each paragraph and take some notes on keywords in each and then refer back to them when i went through the questions so I knew where to look.
Physics-My second worst both in practice and on the test. I was pretty nervous for this section, but it wasnt as bad as i was expecting. I actually thought i was going to do better than i actually did. A lot of questions using the big 5, some periodic motion stuff, waves, F=ma, etc, etc,.
QR-Ok i went into this one pretty nervous because of hearing how rushed most people are. As I went through this I marked and guessed on any question I couldnt start figuring out an answer to within like 20 or 30 seconds. That way I could either come back to them at the end, or if I ran out of time at least i would have an answer down for them. I think the key here is to not get caught up on any one question, and to try and stay calm. There are some tough ones, but there are also some that you can figure out in under 10 seconds.
Overall I was really happy with my scores. I would have liked to do a little better in physics and orgo, but hey, ill take it. Just so glad its finally behind me. For prep I used a princeton review mcat book, the destroyer, and one of the small kaplan OAT books.
