OAT Results and My Opinion

[El Chaco]

Let me start off by saying I studied a lot for this exam. My only two sources of studying were the Kaplan self-paced course and Chad's videos. I subscribed to Chad's videos 3 weeks before the OAT mainly for Gen Chem and Organic. Both of these sources (Kaplan and Chad's) are great and will over-prepare you. The actual OAT was a breeze compared to what I thought it would be because of the over-preparation. I took the exam October 9th, 2017. I studied for approximately 3 months.

I have to say, I could hardly sleep the night before the exam and I was not well rested or in the best mental state when taking the OAT. I stressed a tremendous amount about the exam as time got closer and closer, and I shouldn't have; neither should you. Using these two resources provided me with these scores:

Bio 390, Gen Chem 380, Organic Chem 400, Physics 320, QR 350, RC 300 (I am a pretty slow reader). TS 390, AA 360

As you can tell, my RC score did some damage on my academic average. Most of you, however, can read much quicker than I.

KEEP YOUR COOL. DO NOT STRESS. Just be diligent. I was thinking the OAT was going to rip me to shreds, but with enough preparation, the questions really aren't that bad and are pretty straightforward. I have read a few people stating/wondering that QR and PHYS have changed for the 2017 exam. To assess the assertion that I have seen made that magnetism has been removed is false. I had a few questions on magnetism. The assertion that trig and geometry were removed from QR is mainly true, although, I had one geometry question and no trig.

I had referred to this forum many times throughout my study journey for the OAT, so I figured the least I could do is give back to the community. Best of luck to all of you studying!

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[Brisks]

Congrats and thanks for sharing!

Would you say search and destroy method for RC is fine? I can read well, but some posts on here and personal experience on the practice tests shows it’s possible. Would you have considered it instead of reading through it all?

For Physics, did calculations mostly require one equation and was it 50/50 for calculation/conceptual?

I’d appreciate the feedback! Almost time for me as well.

 

[deleted833661]

Let me start off by saying I studied a lot for this exam. My only two sources of studying were the Kaplan self-paced course and Chad's videos. I subscribed to Chad's videos 3 weeks before the OAT mainly for Gen Chem and Organic. Both of these sources (Kaplan and Chad's) are great and will over-prepare you. The actual OAT was a breeze compared to what I thought it would be because of the over-preparation. I took the exam October 9th, 2017. I studied for approximately 3 months.

I have to say, I could hardly sleep the night before the exam and I was not well rested or in the best mental state when taking the OAT. I stressed a tremendous amount about the exam as time got closer and closer, and I shouldn't have; neither should you. Using these two resources provided me with these scores:

Bio 390, Gen Chem 380, Organic Chem 400, Physics 320, QR 350, RC 300 (I am a pretty slow reader). TS 390, AA 360

As you can tell, my RC score did some damage on my academic average. Most of you, however, can read much quicker than I.

KEEP YOUR COOL. DO NOT STRESS. Just be diligent. I was thinking the OAT was going to rip me to shreds, but with enough preparation, the questions really aren't that bad and are pretty straightforward. I have read a few people stating/wondering that QR and PHYS have changed for the 2017 exam. To assess the assertion that I have seen made that magnetism has been removed is false. I had a few questions on magnetism. The assertion that trig and geometry were removed from QR is mainly true, although, I had one geometry question and no trig.

I had referred to this forum many times throughout my study journey for the OAT, so I figured the least I could do is give back to the community. Best of luck to all of you studying!

Awesome scores!

 

[El Chaco]

@Jeffspnz Thank you! Much appreciated.
@NasirU I kind of half and half did actually reading the passage and using search and destroy. I switched back and forth really because neither method worked great for me. I would say for your average reader that search and destroy would probably work well. My slow reading affected my scores using either method. If you read pretty well, search and destroy would most likely provide you with a good score.

As for your question about physics, it was about 50/50 concepts and calculations. And yes, a vast majority of the calculations only required one equation.

Good luck on your exam. It's really not as hard as you probably think it will be. I'm more than happy to answer any questions.

 

[kilegna]

First, Congratulations on those amazing scores!
If you don't mind, can you provide the Kaplan FL scores you got before the actual exam?
ps. Thank you on clarifying the magnetism being part of physics, I had completely disregarded it off my studies. I will now study for it. I am 2 wks away from my exam.

 

[El Chaco]

@kilegna Thank you! And certainly.

I actually never took a true timed test on Kaplan. I never really wanted to nor did I have the time for 4 1/2 hours straight to do a timed practice exam. I did, however, try to stick to the timing per subtest that Kaplan recommends. I accomplished this for the most part (except for RC, I believe).

The Kaplan exam I had taken most closely to the actual OAT was exactly 6 days prior. My scores for that exam are as follows:
BIO 320 GC 350 OC 360 PHYS 290
RC 340 QR 300 TS 330 AA 330

 

[kilegna]

@kilegna Thank you! And certainly.

I actually never took a true timed test on Kaplan. I never really wanted to nor did I have the time for 4 1/2 hours straight to do a timed practice exam. I did, however, try to stick to the timing per subtest that Kaplan recommends. I accomplished this for the most part (except for RC, I believe).

The Kaplan exam I had taken most closely to the actual OAT was exactly 6 days prior. My scores for that exam are as follows:
BIO 320 GC 350 OC 360 PHYS 290
RC 340 QR 300 TS 330 AA 330

Thank you for your prompt response. Did you find the real OAT to resemble KAPLAN testing?

 

[El Chaco]

@kilegna No problem. The wonder of smart phones

Yes, somewhat. The Kaplan exam was more difficult by a pretty good margin. And FYI I didn't waste my time studying geometry or trig. That's one of the reasons my QR score was better on the real OAT. Kaplan tests would ask me several questions on trig and geometry and I would just guess.

 

[skra7]

@kilegna No problem. The wonder of smart phones

Yes, somewhat. The Kaplan exam was more difficult by a pretty good margin. And FYI I didn't waste my time studying geometry or trig. That's one of the reasons my QR score was better on the real OAT. Kaplan tests would ask me several questions on trig and geometry and I would just guess.

Congrats on the awesome scores! How were the quantitative comparison questions? Easy to figure out?

 

[kilegna]

@kilegna No problem. The wonder of smart phones

Yes, somewhat. The Kaplan exam was more difficult by a pretty good margin. And FYI I didn't waste my time studying geometry or trig. That's one of the reasons my QR score was better on the real OAT. Kaplan tests would ask me several questions on trig and geometry and I would just guess.

Good to know, how many magnetism questions did you encounter?

 

[El Chaco]

@skra7 Thanks

And yes most if the QR questions were pretty easy to figure out. I saved the ones that were describing an event or situation in a few sentences or more for last if I had time. Time was getting close and I just guessed on 2-3 questions.

@kilegna As accurately as I can recount, I believe there was 2, perhaps 3 tops, magnetism questions. This will vary for each test, though. You might have no magnetism questions or you might have 1-3 magnetism questions. I personally would highly doubt anyone is likely to come across more than 3 questions on magnetism.

 

[kilegna]

@skra7 Thanks

And yes most if the QR questions were pretty easy to figure out. I saved the ones that were describing an event or situation in a few sentences or more for last if I had time. Time was getting close and I just guessed on 2-3 questions.

@kilegna As accurately as I can recount, I believe there was 2, perhaps 3 tops, magnetism questions. This will vary for each test, though. You might have no magnetism questions or you might have 1-3 magnetism questions. I personally would highly doubt anyone is likely to come across more than 3 questions on magnetism.

Awesome thank you