PhillyGirl97
Full Member
- Joined
- Jun 8, 2019
- Messages
- 17
- Reaction score
- 14
Hi guys! So I remember reading through this forum and getting some really good advice on here so I thought I would talk about what worked for me personally and what did not for the OAT. So I graduated in 2019 and decided to take a year off for my apps and work at an eye doctor's office for some experience which started in June. I decided to take my OAT in August which was a horrible idea LOL I was working 4 days a week and trying to actively study for 1.5 months and it was just not a good idea at all. I tried my best to study but my practice scores were so atrocious I decided to push it back to the first week of September. But yet again an extra 2 weeks did not do much for me. I took the OAT in early September and did not do well at all, most of my scores were under 300.
Safe to say I was just expecting A LOT more of myself but again I had not given myself enough time so in hindsight it makes sense that I got scores under 300. I decided to take it again in early December so I could have a sufficient amount of time to get through the info. The second time around I decided to drop my work hours to 2 days a week so I would have more time to study. I studied for about 5 days a week and then the other 2 days I worked and reviewed for 2 hours a day at night. I took breaks throughout the week so my mind would get some relaxation time like running a short errand, getting lunch with a friend, cleaning my room, reading a book for an hour, watching 2 episodes of a show etc etc. Breaks are super important so please make sure to incorporate them into your schedule, an hour to 2 hours of relaxing really helps!!! SO here is what I did for each subject:
BIOLOGY:
I already had a pretty good background on biology because I was blessed to have the most amazing professors in college for all the biology topics. Nonetheless I still had to put in a lottt of effort because this section was just soooo detailed and just gigantic there were so many things to memorize. I started with the KAPLAN book and read/took notes for all the chapters but I slowly realized it was not enough so I downloaded the dat bootcamp biology notes! I went through 2 chapters a day and really focused and memorized everything written. I watched crash course videos on youtube for concepts I needed more work on. YOUTUBE WAS MY BEST FRIEND FOR THIS SECTION!! Loads of free videos on concepts!! I reread the notes as much as I could.
CHEMISTRY:
I hated chemistry so much in college so I really had to try for this LOL I used chad's videos for this. I did not use anything else and esp did not use the KAPLAN book because in all honesty It did not help me for this section. Chad has a lottt of good quizzes, loads of useful videos and he just explains things so nicely and simply along with providing tricks and tips for remembering concepts. His videos are the reason I honestly love chemistry now. I took notes with his videos and went back to go over them so I could solidify the concepts.
ORGANIC CHEMISTRY:
Again I hated organic chem in college and learned absolutely 0 from my professor. I used Chad's videos again for this and basically took notes on his videos and took all of his quizzes. I read the notes and quiz problems over again to solidify it in my mind. Another thing I used is the DAT bootcamp reactions sheet and I made flashcards out of those as well. The reactions sheet really helped and chad's videos gave me tips to memorize the reactions and make sure I know exactly how to approach each problem. Towards the end I actually had fun doing some of the problems because of chad's easy to understand explanations!
PHYSICS:
LOL so I hate physics and I always have but I knew I had to get through this so I relied on chad's videos again and it worked well for me but this time his quizzes were not enough for the OAT. I went on DAT bootcamp for this and used the physics section questions which are free!! The DAT doesn't have physics on it but they made a section on their bootcamp for oat students for only physics. search up dat bootcamp physics and you can find it!! Their questions were super close to the real OAT. Chad's videos was my main source of info and I took notes on it as well as used the DAT bootcamp physics questions.
QR:
This was a subject I left til the last 2 weeks or so before the exam. I had the OAT destroyer books which only really worked for the QR section and I pretty much wasted money on the other subject books. I also used my KAPLAN book for this and read through all the chapters for QR and did all the questions in the book. After I did those, I moved on to the destroyer books and mainly focused on those math destroyer questions which were soooo similar to the real OAT. I went through those twice and that was pretty much enough for me. This section is not that bad, you just need to know the formulas and recognize the patterns in the questions but the only thing I was afraid of was the small amount of time that was given to do all the questions. ALSO I know people say to not use the calculator during the exam but it honestly helped me a lot so I would say use it!!
RC:
I left this till the last few weeks of the exam as well. I basically just did a lott of practice sections and used the method from the KAPLAN book. The first few times were kinda rough but it got a lot easier and I got higher scores toward the last 4 or 5 practice sections I took. This section is again not bad as long as you do practice sections for a few weeks before, don't go overboard on this section. The real oat reading sections were actually a lot simpler and tbh interesting to go through. Another thing I would say is do not fully read the sections during the exam. That is how you waste time, just skim through them get the main ideas and keep going. You will need to hardcore focus to do this but the strategy worked for me!
****I also made the effort to make review sheets on bio, chem, orgo, and physics. they were basically cheat sheets handwritten in small text. basically something I could take on the go and study somewhere when I did not have my full on books with me. I used to take them to work and lightly study on my break if I wanted to and took them on long car rides if my parents and I were going to an event or something. they really helped tbh!
I studied for about 3 months ishhh and again 5 days a week! I would wake up around 9 am get ready eat breakfast till about 10:15 and then start my work! I would eat lunch around 12:30 pm 1 pm depending on what I was doing. So that would be my break time till about 2:30 pm and then I would study till about 7:30 pm take another break for dinner and then go back finish whatever I needed and end my studying around 10 pm. I would completely relax for 2 hours and sleep at midnight. This was my main schedule and I tried to stick to this everyday but again life happens and sometimes I would have to alter it. One thing I was strict about was that I would never ever stay up late to do my work. Sleep is something I did not compromise on! Whatever I did not finish that day I put a star next to it and finished it the next day. Each day I had a list of things to do and tried to get as much done as possible! of course it did not always 100% get done but I tried my best.
THE WEEK BEFORE MY EXAM:
I honestly relaxed this week. I did mostly practice exams and reviewed any last minute stuff, nothing intense because I did not want to freak myself out. The day before I reviewed lightly for an hour or so and then relaxed all day. The day of the exam I got up showered, had a light breakfast and went to my exam with just my small cheat sheets from each subject just to read on the way there. I simply just tried to calm down and be composed for this, there is no reason to freak out because that hurts you more than it helps trust me.
The second time I got scores all above a 300 with my lowest being a 310 and highest a 330
At first I was not too happy with these because my goals were to get a 350 and over in all sections but when I got home after the exam I did see that they were a hugeee jump from my old scores so I became a lot more comfortable with them!
**I'm honestly not a perfect student and my GPA was not you know outstanding but I had a lottt of experience in the Optometry field and had done a lot of extracurricular work during college as well. I was in a few clubs as well as Vice President of my Sorority so I had loads of leadership experience. I showed as much passion as I could to the schools I applied to and really made it clear through my personal statement for why I wanted this for myself. I applied to 6 schools, got interviews from 4 of them - NOVA, MCPHS, Salus, and Western! I ended up only going to 2 of them and I have accepted Salus University OD program You do not have to be perfect to get in but one thing I learned is that your application has to have balance so if you are lacking in one spot, you need to show strength in another so everything balances. It takes a lot of work but its sooo worth it!!!
If you have any questions I would 100% be happy to answer them so please go ahead if you do and good luck to you all!!
Safe to say I was just expecting A LOT more of myself but again I had not given myself enough time so in hindsight it makes sense that I got scores under 300. I decided to take it again in early December so I could have a sufficient amount of time to get through the info. The second time around I decided to drop my work hours to 2 days a week so I would have more time to study. I studied for about 5 days a week and then the other 2 days I worked and reviewed for 2 hours a day at night. I took breaks throughout the week so my mind would get some relaxation time like running a short errand, getting lunch with a friend, cleaning my room, reading a book for an hour, watching 2 episodes of a show etc etc. Breaks are super important so please make sure to incorporate them into your schedule, an hour to 2 hours of relaxing really helps!!! SO here is what I did for each subject:
BIOLOGY:
I already had a pretty good background on biology because I was blessed to have the most amazing professors in college for all the biology topics. Nonetheless I still had to put in a lottt of effort because this section was just soooo detailed and just gigantic there were so many things to memorize. I started with the KAPLAN book and read/took notes for all the chapters but I slowly realized it was not enough so I downloaded the dat bootcamp biology notes! I went through 2 chapters a day and really focused and memorized everything written. I watched crash course videos on youtube for concepts I needed more work on. YOUTUBE WAS MY BEST FRIEND FOR THIS SECTION!! Loads of free videos on concepts!! I reread the notes as much as I could.
CHEMISTRY:
I hated chemistry so much in college so I really had to try for this LOL I used chad's videos for this. I did not use anything else and esp did not use the KAPLAN book because in all honesty It did not help me for this section. Chad has a lottt of good quizzes, loads of useful videos and he just explains things so nicely and simply along with providing tricks and tips for remembering concepts. His videos are the reason I honestly love chemistry now. I took notes with his videos and went back to go over them so I could solidify the concepts.
ORGANIC CHEMISTRY:
Again I hated organic chem in college and learned absolutely 0 from my professor. I used Chad's videos again for this and basically took notes on his videos and took all of his quizzes. I read the notes and quiz problems over again to solidify it in my mind. Another thing I used is the DAT bootcamp reactions sheet and I made flashcards out of those as well. The reactions sheet really helped and chad's videos gave me tips to memorize the reactions and make sure I know exactly how to approach each problem. Towards the end I actually had fun doing some of the problems because of chad's easy to understand explanations!
PHYSICS:
LOL so I hate physics and I always have but I knew I had to get through this so I relied on chad's videos again and it worked well for me but this time his quizzes were not enough for the OAT. I went on DAT bootcamp for this and used the physics section questions which are free!! The DAT doesn't have physics on it but they made a section on their bootcamp for oat students for only physics. search up dat bootcamp physics and you can find it!! Their questions were super close to the real OAT. Chad's videos was my main source of info and I took notes on it as well as used the DAT bootcamp physics questions.
QR:
This was a subject I left til the last 2 weeks or so before the exam. I had the OAT destroyer books which only really worked for the QR section and I pretty much wasted money on the other subject books. I also used my KAPLAN book for this and read through all the chapters for QR and did all the questions in the book. After I did those, I moved on to the destroyer books and mainly focused on those math destroyer questions which were soooo similar to the real OAT. I went through those twice and that was pretty much enough for me. This section is not that bad, you just need to know the formulas and recognize the patterns in the questions but the only thing I was afraid of was the small amount of time that was given to do all the questions. ALSO I know people say to not use the calculator during the exam but it honestly helped me a lot so I would say use it!!
RC:
I left this till the last few weeks of the exam as well. I basically just did a lott of practice sections and used the method from the KAPLAN book. The first few times were kinda rough but it got a lot easier and I got higher scores toward the last 4 or 5 practice sections I took. This section is again not bad as long as you do practice sections for a few weeks before, don't go overboard on this section. The real oat reading sections were actually a lot simpler and tbh interesting to go through. Another thing I would say is do not fully read the sections during the exam. That is how you waste time, just skim through them get the main ideas and keep going. You will need to hardcore focus to do this but the strategy worked for me!
****I also made the effort to make review sheets on bio, chem, orgo, and physics. they were basically cheat sheets handwritten in small text. basically something I could take on the go and study somewhere when I did not have my full on books with me. I used to take them to work and lightly study on my break if I wanted to and took them on long car rides if my parents and I were going to an event or something. they really helped tbh!
I studied for about 3 months ishhh and again 5 days a week! I would wake up around 9 am get ready eat breakfast till about 10:15 and then start my work! I would eat lunch around 12:30 pm 1 pm depending on what I was doing. So that would be my break time till about 2:30 pm and then I would study till about 7:30 pm take another break for dinner and then go back finish whatever I needed and end my studying around 10 pm. I would completely relax for 2 hours and sleep at midnight. This was my main schedule and I tried to stick to this everyday but again life happens and sometimes I would have to alter it. One thing I was strict about was that I would never ever stay up late to do my work. Sleep is something I did not compromise on! Whatever I did not finish that day I put a star next to it and finished it the next day. Each day I had a list of things to do and tried to get as much done as possible! of course it did not always 100% get done but I tried my best.
THE WEEK BEFORE MY EXAM:
I honestly relaxed this week. I did mostly practice exams and reviewed any last minute stuff, nothing intense because I did not want to freak myself out. The day before I reviewed lightly for an hour or so and then relaxed all day. The day of the exam I got up showered, had a light breakfast and went to my exam with just my small cheat sheets from each subject just to read on the way there. I simply just tried to calm down and be composed for this, there is no reason to freak out because that hurts you more than it helps trust me.
The second time I got scores all above a 300 with my lowest being a 310 and highest a 330
At first I was not too happy with these because my goals were to get a 350 and over in all sections but when I got home after the exam I did see that they were a hugeee jump from my old scores so I became a lot more comfortable with them!
**I'm honestly not a perfect student and my GPA was not you know outstanding but I had a lottt of experience in the Optometry field and had done a lot of extracurricular work during college as well. I was in a few clubs as well as Vice President of my Sorority so I had loads of leadership experience. I showed as much passion as I could to the schools I applied to and really made it clear through my personal statement for why I wanted this for myself. I applied to 6 schools, got interviews from 4 of them - NOVA, MCPHS, Salus, and Western! I ended up only going to 2 of them and I have accepted Salus University OD program
You do not have to be perfect to get in but one thing I learned is that your application has to have balance so if you are lacking in one spot, you need to show strength in another so everything balances. It takes a lot of work but its sooo worth it!!! If you have any questions I would 100% be happy to answer them so please go ahead if you do and good luck to you all!!
