OAT Nerves

[JoshDunc]

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Okay so I took the OAT my sophomore year of college. Did not study at all and got a 270. Well I take it again August 16th and just got my study material in so I'm starting today when I get off work. I'm kind of nervous because it is so close to time. I am using the Kaplan OAT 2015 book. I need advice. Here is my plans:

Today: Take the in book practice test to determine my strengths and weaknesses.

Tomorrow: Begin studying my weakest subject and go from there.

2 days before the test: Take the online practice test to determine how I have learned the material and what I need to comb over the day before the test.

I have a 3.0 GPA right now and after this fall I figure I will have a 3.15 GPA. My uncle has been practicing optometry since 1993 and my cousin is about to start his 2nd year. This is a passion of mine and I'm certain this is what I want as a career. I have over 700 paid hours in an optometry office, 40 hours unpaid shadowing, and 8 hours of optometric volunteer community service. I'm nervous I won't get in.

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[Meeehai]

Okay so I took the OAT my sophomore year of college. Did not study at all and got a 270. Well I take it again August 16th and just got my study material in so I'm starting today when I get off work. I'm kind of nervous because it is so close to time. I am using the Kaplan OAT 2015 book. I need advice. Here is my plans:

Today: Take the in book practice test to determine my strengths and weaknesses.

Tomorrow: Begin studying my weakest subject and go from there.

2 days before the test: Take the online practice test to determine how I have learned the material and what I need to comb over the day before the test.

I have a 3.0 GPA right now and after this fall I figure I will have a 3.15 GPA. My uncle has been practicing optometry since 1993 and my cousin is about to start his 2nd year. This is a passion of mine and I'm certain this is what I want as a career. I have over 700 paid hours in an optometry office, 40 hours unpaid shadowing, and 8 hours of optometric volunteer community service. I'm nervous I won't get in.

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I think if you're familiar with the material you'll be fine for the 16th as long as you put in a good amount of hours into studying each day. In my opinion, if you have already seen the content before, the Kaplan book is enough preparation in your case where you don't have as much time. I think the best course of action is to make a rigid plan where you dedicate yourself to learning the subject areas and leaving some days for doing practice exams - don't get lazy! I would do as many practice tests as you can, instead of doing one right before test day. Remember that the practice tests are not a perfect reflection of the actual test, but they do give a good idea of where you're at. If you're not performing the way you want on the practice, I would push back the test day a couple weeks. Better to take the test a little later if it means you're going to do significantly better on it, right? No reason to be nervous, you've already taken it once so you know exactly what to expect. I guarantee your jitters will be gone the moment you sit down in the testing chair.

Don't stress about your GPA too much, while it is on the low end, the OAT is a great way to show adcoms that you have a good understanding of the material that you might not have done so well on in your courses. I think if you do well on your OAT you will get in, especially with how well you can demonstrate that you have a good understanding and desire for the field via your extensive involvement in optometry. I'm taking my OAT on the 17th for the first time, however, I have taken the MCAT twice and at the end of the day your commitment to studying for the test will be the biggest factor in your performance. I started studying for the MCAT about 3 months in advance and also ended up taking an overpriced course to help me out. But my study habits were poor, I would quickly brush over material and I ended up going out every weekend with my friends instead of committing hours to studying. Of course, I did not perform very well my first time taking it. I buckled down and dedicated about a month of serious studying before my retake and my scores improved.

Anyway, I don't want to bore you with my life story, but maybe you needed a little inspiration. You got this!

 

[JoshDunc]

I think if you're familiar with the material you'll be fine for the 16th as long as you put in a good amount of hours into studying each day. In my opinion, if you have already seen the content before, the Kaplan book is enough preparation in your case where you don't have as much time. I think the best course of action is to make a rigid plan where you dedicate yourself to learning the subject areas and leaving some days for doing practice exams - don't get lazy! I would do as many practice tests as you can, instead of doing one right before test day. Remember that the practice tests are not a perfect reflection of the actual test, but they do give a good idea of where you're at. If you're not performing the way you want on the practice, I would push back the test day a couple weeks. Better to take the test a little later if it means you're going to do significantly better on it, right? No reason to be nervous, you've already taken it once so you know exactly what to expect. I guarantee your jitters will be gone the moment you sit down in the testing chair.

Don't stress about your GPA too much, while it is on the low end, the OAT is a great way to show adcoms that you have a good understanding of the material that you might not have done so well on in your courses. I think if you do well on your OAT you will get in, especially with how well you can demonstrate that you have a good understanding and desire for the field via your extensive involvement in optometry. I'm taking my OAT on the 17th for the first time, however, I have taken the MCAT twice and at the end of the day your commitment to studying for the test will be the biggest factor in your performance. I started studying for the MCAT about 3 months in advance and also ended up taking an overpriced course to help me out. But my study habits were poor, I would quickly brush over material and I ended up going out every weekend with my friends instead of committing hours to studying. Of course, I did not perform very well my first time taking it. I buckled down and dedicated about a month of serious studying before my retake and my scores improved.

Anyway, I don't want to bore you with my life story, but maybe you needed a little inspiration. You got this!

Thank you! I plan on finishing the physics portion of the Kaplan book sometime this weekend. I figure then I will take the Physics portion of the practice test in the book. Then move on to Gen Chem and Organic. QR and RC were over 300 when I took it a couple years ago. I think I have grown in a couple years and will do even better in those 2 areas. Biology is so vast that I will probably get flashcards online and go over them 4 hours per day about 2-3 days in advance. The reason I scheduled it early is because if I do not do as well then I can take it again in November which then I will have had ample amount of study time!

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[chelle111]

I did similar my first time around, slightly better..but the second time I took my OAT I raised my physics and biology sections 50 pts, QR and reading 30-40 points, and gen chem 20pts. I studied probably 8-9 hours a day the month before the exam 5-6x a week (took Friday off) with each Saturday taking a practice exam (OAT Achiever). I used the Destroyer books for practice questions and found it most useful for physics, biology, and QR and overkill for ochem and gen Chem. I also work full-time and I'm in graduate school so any downtime I got in the lab I reviewed...

If you want it bad enough despite your circumstances I'm sure you will achieve your goal!

Good luck!

 

[JoshDunc]

I did similar my first time around, slightly better..but the second time I took my OAT I raised my physics and biology sections 50 pts, QR and reading 30-40 points, and gen chem 20pts. I studied probably 8-9 hours a day the month before the exam 5-6x a week (took Friday off) with each Saturday taking a practice exam (OAT Achiever). I used the Destroyer books for practice questions and found it most useful for physics, biology, and QR and overkill for ochem and gen Chem. I also work full-time and I'm in graduate school so any downtime I got in the lab I reviewed...

If you want it bad enough despite your circumstances I'm sure you will achieve your goal!

Good luck!

Awesome job! I ended up paying $60 to push it back to give me more time. I figured $60 to better prepare myself is better than $400+ to take it again. I'll be taking it October 2nd. I wish I could dedicate that much time but being married I have to provide for my family so I'm spending about 3 hours per day studying right now. But with the amount of time I have before the test now I figure I will be much more prepared than if I were to take it my original date of August 16th.

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[chelle111]

Awesome job! I ended up paying $60 to push it back to give me more time. I figured $60 to better prepare myself is better than $400+ to take it again. I'll be taking it October 2nd. I wish I could dedicate that much time but being married I have to provide for my family so I'm spending about 3 hours per day studying right now. But with the amount of time I have before the test now I figure I will be much more prepared than if I were to take it my original date of August 16th.

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I really suggest getting OAT Achiever. It seemed to help me get used to the testing experience and get over my test anxiety issues. It's all about confidence when you walk into that room! Good luck!

 

[Ballaaxx]

are the oat achiever practice tests better than the ones in the kaplan and princeton review books?

 

[chelle111]

are the oat achiever practice tests better than the ones in the kaplan and princeton review books?

I didn't care for Kaplan. The Achiever is harder than the real thing, but I felt like the QR was spot on to the real exam.

 

[Ballaaxx]

Which one out of all would be a more accurate representation regarding bio, sciences, phsyics? I haven't taken one yet. I want to study from them, do they give explanations I can study from?

 

[chelle111]

Which one out of all would be a more accurate representation regarding bio, sciences, phsyics? I haven't taken one yet. I want to study from them, do they give explanations I can study from?

Reading more so Kaplan. QR more so Achiever but some of Kaplan. Physics on Kaplan is more calculation than the actual exam, so I thought Achiever and Destroyer helped me with conceptual questions. Biology is harder on Achiever but using that my biology went up 50 points because it made the actual biology on the exam seem easy. I though gen Chem was more general and no practice test really accurately represented that and ochem I felt like was similar to the ADA exam online slightly harder..I liked achiever because it's exactly the same computer format as the real exam. I took the OAT twice and really thought the program helped my timing issues