Does anyone out there have any thought or suggestions on how they would approach preparing for the OAT if they were in my shoes? I have scheduled to take it on January 6th and can''t start studying until the first week of December. So what for those who have been through it, what is your take on the best way for being successful with a basically a 3 week time crunch? Kaplan book? Kaplan online classes? Destroyer? Which resources did you find most helpful and efficient. Thank you to anyone who can shed some light and help me out. 🙂
OAT prep strategy
- Thread starter 1889osu
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If I could do the OAT all over again, I would have just done practice tests. I did a free Kaplan one, the two Kaplan tests that come the book (one in the book and one online), and two Princeton Review tests. For the last week of my studies I did nothing but those tests. I wish I had done that for 3 or 4 weeks. I'd do the test in the library under conditions as similar as possible to the real thing (timing, calculator, etc). Then I'd score my test and review every single problem. Why I got it wrong. Why I got it right. Sometimes I'd get it right but for the wrong reasons so you can't just review the wrong answers. So for those 3 weeks I'd recommend you just spend your time doing nothing but practice tests.
However, in the next month you can still squeeze some minor stuff in. I recommend the Kaplan MCAT flash card app for your phone. That was great when I was waiting in line somewhere or just otherwise bored. I had a few other apps. Chemistry, anatomy, etc. It's not focused study time, but if you do it enough it will help you keep random things like equations, hormones, and all that straight for when you start your practice tests.
However, in the next month you can still squeeze some minor stuff in. I recommend the Kaplan MCAT flash card app for your phone. That was great when I was waiting in line somewhere or just otherwise bored. I had a few other apps. Chemistry, anatomy, etc. It's not focused study time, but if you do it enough it will help you keep random things like equations, hormones, and all that straight for when you start your practice tests.
Hey, I just have a question, when you scheduled your OAT, were the dates filled for the month of December? And how did January look?
I want to reschedule an OAT but I want to hold off until I hear from the schools I've applied to.
Thanks!
And I do not offer much help to your question... for I am in the same shoes as you lol.
I want to reschedule an OAT but I want to hold off until I hear from the schools I've applied to.
Thanks!
And I do not offer much help to your question... for I am in the same shoes as you lol.
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It is going to be dependent on where you are taking it and whether the Prometric Center is booked up.
Thank you so much for your feedback. So would you think its a waste for me to invest in the online Kaplan OAT Advantage-On Demand course? I am just concerned with being as efficient as possible with the 3 weeks I have...
I took a Kaplan course where I had class twice a week online. It was taught by a 2nd year dental student and he basically just read straight from the book. (It was terrible in my opinion). Less than a month before my OAT I bought the 30 day pass to Chad's course saver videos and loved them. I was upset that I spent so much money on Kaplan when it didn't help me. But everyone is different and I've heard of people really benefiting from the class.
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Whereas I never took a Kaplan course, I've known 3 people who have and their experiences match that of 02201992. Two of them got their money back because the "higher score guarantee" didn't hold up... and these cats spent an insane amount of time studying. That was for the MCAT, but I think the level of quality would translate. A friend that took the OAT version had the same experience, but opted to do the coursework again rather than get her money back. There were some interesting tips that these people shared with me that came in handy, but it's nothing you couldn't get from the folks here on the OAT discussion forum. Also, Chad's videos, while I never used them (no money, ha!) people on the OAT discussion forum swear by them. Wish I had the money.
Mostly I think it depends on how comfortable you are with the base material. I recommend taking a practice test and seeing where you are with that. Kaplan usually has a free one which kind of serves as a trial/commercial for their On-Demand package so that should be a useful diagnostic tool. The big OAT book Kaplan has is about 800+ pages. To get through all of that material - once - in 21 days means you're reading about 38 pages per day. On-Demand has the quizzes and all that, which may be useful, but I just don't think that's enough time to really absorb the material in that book/online.
Mostly I think it depends on how comfortable you are with the base material. I recommend taking a practice test and seeing where you are with that. Kaplan usually has a free one which kind of serves as a trial/commercial for their On-Demand package so that should be a useful diagnostic tool. The big OAT book Kaplan has is about 800+ pages. To get through all of that material - once - in 21 days means you're reading about 38 pages per day. On-Demand has the quizzes and all that, which may be useful, but I just don't think that's enough time to really absorb the material in that book/online.
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Have you thought about pushing it back a few weeks?
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I would advise against only studying for the OAT for three weeks. If I were you, I'd look into rescheduling the test at a later date. You really only want to have to take the OAT once. It's expensive and you have to wait 90 days to retake it. I took the Kaplan OAT Advantage course, which met 3 days a week for 3 hours over a 4 week time-frame. Then after the course finished, I studied 6 days a week for 5 hours: 5 days of using the online materials/flash cards from Kaplan, 1 day of taking a full length practice test, and 1 day off. I did this for 3 weeks and then took my OAT. I felt really confident walking in to take my test; I felt like there wasn't anything else I could have done to be more prepared. I ended up getting 390AA/400TS. I'm really glad I took the Kaplan course because I felt like it was extremely helpful, but I think you get out of it what you put into it. If I hadn't taken the time to study on my own for three weeks after the Kaplan course there is no way I would have done as well as I did.
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1889OSU, congrats on setting an exam date! That's the first step in making you start studying. I would tell you what I did to prepare for my Sept. 2013 OAT test.
For the first half of a month, I watched Khan Academy videos which really give you a good fundamental knowledge of the sciences to build upon.
For the second month of studying, I got a KAPLAN OAT book from my university's library (not the actual Kaplan course) and did like 3 chapters a day from it. (sometimes only 2, or max 4).
I only did the chapters for General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Biology & Physics. Then for like 2 weeks I simply relaxed and took 2 practice tests at the library, to work on my timing.
I also did some practice Reading Comprehension passages from the Kaplan book before trying the practice tests to work on my timing and note-taking.
I ended up getting 360AA(370TS), so my advice I am about to give has a decent amount of weight to it. My goal was 340 AA.
YOU HAVE A MONTH! A lot of people can study what they feel to be "enough" in a month, and if you don't feel like pushing it back, here is what I would do.
Don't waste your time on Khan academy videos.
1. Rent out a Kaplan OAT book from your school's library. Odds are if they don't have it, they will find one for you from another library and do an inter-library loan to bring it to you for free. Or you can buy it online for like around $50 on Amazon or something.
2. As soon as you get the book, read the intro part to get a sense of the test and SKIM (but do not read) the practice test at the end so you get an idea of what the test is going to be like. Make sure not to memorize any questions because you want to take this test and get a fair score from it later.
3. (For first 15-17 days) Go through Gen Chem, O-chem, Biology sections (preferrably in that order, no matter what order Kaplan puts them in)
4. (For next 7 days) Study for Physics using a different method. I can tell you that memorizing equations is required, and nobody will tell you which exact ones the OAT wants you to know. Again, there are a lot of resources to study physics for the OAT out there. And if you feel like you are pretty good at math, don't really spend too much time on it. Maybe just skim it. If you do feel you can greatly improve in math by studying, I think you should use the Kaplan book for it or maybe just the flashcards. You can buy the flashcards for DAT/OAT online. They are the same for DAT/OAT.
5. (For next 3 days) go through all the practice passages you can find for the Reading Comprehension section and practice being able to answer all questions while taking as many notes as you can for each article without running out of time. Treat this like an actual test, because you don't want to realize on test day your natural rate of doing the Reading Comp is a little slower than it needs to be.
6. *****IMPORTANT***** Take practice tests. Kaplan OAT book will have one at the end of it. The ada.org i think is the website that has another practice test. I found the average of both of the test scores to be a good indicator of your actual score. But more importantly, it lets you practice your test-stamina so you are best prepared on test day. It makes a difference, and there is a reason everyone tells you to take practice tests. It's more important than spending the last few days studying up on stuff.
Oh and squeeze Christmas and a day off somewhere in there! Good luck to you, and if you have any questions let me know.
For the first half of a month, I watched Khan Academy videos which really give you a good fundamental knowledge of the sciences to build upon.
For the second month of studying, I got a KAPLAN OAT book from my university's library (not the actual Kaplan course) and did like 3 chapters a day from it. (sometimes only 2, or max 4).
I only did the chapters for General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Biology & Physics. Then for like 2 weeks I simply relaxed and took 2 practice tests at the library, to work on my timing.
I also did some practice Reading Comprehension passages from the Kaplan book before trying the practice tests to work on my timing and note-taking.
I ended up getting 360AA(370TS), so my advice I am about to give has a decent amount of weight to it. My goal was 340 AA.
YOU HAVE A MONTH! A lot of people can study what they feel to be "enough" in a month, and if you don't feel like pushing it back, here is what I would do.
Don't waste your time on Khan academy videos.
1. Rent out a Kaplan OAT book from your school's library. Odds are if they don't have it, they will find one for you from another library and do an inter-library loan to bring it to you for free. Or you can buy it online for like around $50 on Amazon or something.
2. As soon as you get the book, read the intro part to get a sense of the test and SKIM (but do not read) the practice test at the end so you get an idea of what the test is going to be like. Make sure not to memorize any questions because you want to take this test and get a fair score from it later.
3. (For first 15-17 days) Go through Gen Chem, O-chem, Biology sections (preferrably in that order, no matter what order Kaplan puts them in)
4. (For next 7 days) Study for Physics using a different method. I can tell you that memorizing equations is required, and nobody will tell you which exact ones the OAT wants you to know. Again, there are a lot of resources to study physics for the OAT out there. And if you feel like you are pretty good at math, don't really spend too much time on it. Maybe just skim it. If you do feel you can greatly improve in math by studying, I think you should use the Kaplan book for it or maybe just the flashcards. You can buy the flashcards for DAT/OAT online. They are the same for DAT/OAT.
5. (For next 3 days) go through all the practice passages you can find for the Reading Comprehension section and practice being able to answer all questions while taking as many notes as you can for each article without running out of time. Treat this like an actual test, because you don't want to realize on test day your natural rate of doing the Reading Comp is a little slower than it needs to be.
6. *****IMPORTANT***** Take practice tests. Kaplan OAT book will have one at the end of it. The ada.org i think is the website that has another practice test. I found the average of both of the test scores to be a good indicator of your actual score. But more importantly, it lets you practice your test-stamina so you are best prepared on test day. It makes a difference, and there is a reason everyone tells you to take practice tests. It's more important than spending the last few days studying up on stuff.
Oh and squeeze Christmas and a day off somewhere in there! Good luck to you, and if you have any questions let me know.
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i suggest you push back your OAT test day. As someone else mentioned, you really want to only take this test once and give it all you got and be done with it. It's expensive and the schools will see all your scores.
I took Kaplan's course in class and they provided lots of online material. It was a great course. You can not solely rely on just going to their class though. You need to put in the time and effort yourself and do as many if not all of their practice tests that they provide online. They give LOTS of quizzes and tests on there.It's very overwhelming but take it one at a time and just try your best to keep up. It may seem redundant/repetiive but it gets you used to what it feels like to take a computerized test and with that time frame.
I also bought a used OAT Destroyer book which was very helpful on top of the Kaplan material. Great explanations for every problem.
I used about 2.5 months to study all of this. It paid off 🙂
I took Kaplan's course in class and they provided lots of online material. It was a great course. You can not solely rely on just going to their class though. You need to put in the time and effort yourself and do as many if not all of their practice tests that they provide online. They give LOTS of quizzes and tests on there.It's very overwhelming but take it one at a time and just try your best to keep up. It may seem redundant/repetiive but it gets you used to what it feels like to take a computerized test and with that time frame.
I also bought a used OAT Destroyer book which was very helpful on top of the Kaplan material. Great explanations for every problem.
I used about 2.5 months to study all of this. It paid off 🙂
