I just took the OAT today (July 24, 2010) at 12:00 p.m. I'll never forget this date hehehe!
Anyways, I did really bad on the Physics. O gawd did I screw up on that section. I studied usually how to calculate stuff and I wasn't prepared for all the conceptual problems. About like 90% were conceptual =( nooo!!
I want to leave comments to help those who haven't taken it! And yes, I know my scores aren't SUPERB but oh well I tried!
My scores:
QR:310 ~ Dude they had two log problems, I was like HUH??? No one told me about this. Seriously you really need to skip a lot to do the easy plug and chug ones and then go back to the harder word problems! I felt like I didn't have much time on this.
RC: 320 ~ didn't expect this good score either. I'm always out of time on the practice RC but it was really straight forward detail questions. Passages about dragons, meteors/asteriods in solar system, forgot one of the passages
Biology: 340 ~ didn't think I would do so well on Bio, everyone said this was hardest for them. What surprised me was they show you a picture with RBCS?and u had to tell where it was found! I'm like WTH does that picture look like!!! lol
General Chemistry: 310 ~ studied too much for calculations. had a lot more concepts as well.
Organic Chemistry: 330 ~ concepts. saw about two or three reactions. They attacked my weakest area which was NMR splitting ( I can never get those, arghhh!!!), carbon 13-NMR, and some separation techniques.
Physics: 280 ~ TOTALLY BOMBED THIS ONE!! =(. I studied more for calculations. DARN!! So many concepts!!!
Total Science: 310 ~ Yah I think my physics brought my score WAYYY down
Academic Average ~ 320
So right now, I feel so frustrated about the Physics part. It's like I overstudied and panicked about calculations, calculations, and BAM! concepts =(. I know a lot of schools are like they want 300 + on everything so I know for sure I will have to retake it a 2nd time right?
1) If you retake, do they only take your highest score out of both tests? I heard Western does that and I'm not sure about the other schools.
2) For the Physics section I heard from one person that hers was mostly calculations and another person it's concepts. Since there are different exams, is that true? I was thinking maybe they will still put concepts more but just different questions.
3) For those who have taken it twice, what is the likelihood of getting the same questions?
4) Also, PLEASE ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTION, what is the best way to study for the Physics section for concepts!!
OAT destroyer - okay for some chem and o.chem
Princeton practice workbook/in class book - I think these help the most because the level of difficulty was the same as the real OAT
OAT achiever - good for stimulation of real tests. I didn't like how they always have a lot of questions where you choose the roman numerals a) I, II, III because the real exam only had three of those. I did the practice tests and I was so depressed, I got like overall: 290, 280, and 300. -_-.
Sorry for the long thread. Any suggestions and advice will help. Thank you very much!
Anyways, I did really bad on the Physics. O gawd did I screw up on that section. I studied usually how to calculate stuff and I wasn't prepared for all the conceptual problems. About like 90% were conceptual =( nooo!!
I want to leave comments to help those who haven't taken it! And yes, I know my scores aren't SUPERB but oh well I tried!
My scores:
QR:310 ~ Dude they had two log problems, I was like HUH??? No one told me about this. Seriously you really need to skip a lot to do the easy plug and chug ones and then go back to the harder word problems! I felt like I didn't have much time on this.
RC: 320 ~ didn't expect this good score either. I'm always out of time on the practice RC but it was really straight forward detail questions. Passages about dragons, meteors/asteriods in solar system, forgot one of the passages
Biology: 340 ~ didn't think I would do so well on Bio, everyone said this was hardest for them. What surprised me was they show you a picture with RBCS?and u had to tell where it was found! I'm like WTH does that picture look like!!! lol
General Chemistry: 310 ~ studied too much for calculations. had a lot more concepts as well.
Organic Chemistry: 330 ~ concepts. saw about two or three reactions. They attacked my weakest area which was NMR splitting ( I can never get those, arghhh!!!), carbon 13-NMR, and some separation techniques.
Physics: 280 ~ TOTALLY BOMBED THIS ONE!! =(. I studied more for calculations. DARN!! So many concepts!!!
Total Science: 310 ~ Yah I think my physics brought my score WAYYY down
Academic Average ~ 320
So right now, I feel so frustrated about the Physics part. It's like I overstudied and panicked about calculations, calculations, and BAM! concepts =(. I know a lot of schools are like they want 300 + on everything so I know for sure I will have to retake it a 2nd time right?
So my questions are:
1) If you retake, do they only take your highest score out of both tests? I heard Western does that and I'm not sure about the other schools.
2) For the Physics section I heard from one person that hers was mostly calculations and another person it's concepts. Since there are different exams, is that true? I was thinking maybe they will still put concepts more but just different questions.
3) For those who have taken it twice, what is the likelihood of getting the same questions?
4) Also, PLEASE ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTION, what is the best way to study for the Physics section for concepts!!
Materials I used were:
Kaplan Online Practice Tests - which did not really help much cuz they overemphasized on calculations more and the questions were WAYYYY harder than real exam. They are pretty good on the biology stuff and ochem.
OAT destroyer - okay for some chem and o.chem
Princeton practice workbook/in class book - I think these help the most because the level of difficulty was the same as the real OAT
OAT achiever - good for stimulation of real tests. I didn't like how they always have a lot of questions where you choose the roman numerals a) I, II, III because the real exam only had three of those. I did the practice tests and I was so depressed, I got like overall: 290, 280, and 300. -_-.
Sorry for the long thread. Any suggestions and advice will help. Thank you very much!
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