OAT scores advice and suggestions on retake!

[jtlangel]

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?

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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[cloud99]

Where do you want to apply and what is your gpa? A 320 AA will get you into some schools if your gpa and extracurriculars are good.

 

[jc328]

I heard some school choose the highest score from each exams, and some don't. It's best to call each school you are interested applying to.

In my experience, concepts is more important for OAT physics. Once you get the concepts, the calculation part should be very easy. I used the Big Kaplan OAT book for physics review. After I finished reading a chapter, I wrote out the important concepts and added formulas to a separate sheet for formulas only. After I am done reviewing the concepts, I used Destroyers for additional practice. (questions on destroyer is a lot harder, but it's a good review for both concept and calculation)

I have only took it once, but I have seen one exact question from the free OAT sample test.

 

[jtlangel]

GPA is kinda low =(

Pre-req only: 3.3 - 3.5?
Overall: 3.0-3.3?

not really sure since I took some classes at community college and transferred to UC Davis so how you calculate that?

Never gotten any withdrawals or D, or F but I'm always on the borderline C+/B- and I end up with C+.

My extracurricular:

Optometry abroad trip to Nicaragua/Costa Rica
Summer internship at UC David Medical Center - Optometry
Summer internship at optometric private office at Sacramento
Prevent Blindness Northern California - Children/Adult Eye Screener 08-Present
UC Berkeley Health Fair Volunteer Coordinator - EyePACS - 08-Present
Shadowing my own optometrist ~ 40 hours

Pre-optometry Club member
Light House Volunteer - just started this (help a visually impaired person read his mail and also to gain a new perspective on how he lives his life even though most of his vision is gone)

I'm missing work at an office but I'm looking for that soon!! need to fit it in around my second attempt at OAT =*(

But i think i still need to retake physics!! *sigh*

 

[kiwi5frog]

you got logs? ouch. I was lucky enough to get no log questions at all.

I got a 360 in physics using only the kaplan materials. kaplan really does not focus on what you really "need to know" as they are far too heavy on very long computations.

In terms of advice, i'm going to go out on a limb here. if you can postpone your retake, take a community college class on physics. It'll refresh your physics and give a you stronger foundation in the concepts.

if you need a quicker solution, i have "heard" that the Destroyer has a very good representation of the OAT physics section

my physic section was maybe 60% concept 40% computation.

 

[TNgal21]

OAT Destroyer Physics really helped me. I made a 340 on Physics. Kaplan was definitely tougher than the real thing. I took a Biomechanics course (for my major.. deals with physics of movement essentially). It was really helpful if you're able to take another class like the previous person suggested.

 

[naearls]

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
!

Are you saying the questions were straight forward detail questions? How the test compare to the official practice test?

 

[jtlangel]

Are you saying the questions were straight forward detail questions? How the test compare to the official practice test?

I don't remember what the official practice reading was because I didn't even look at it since it was so short so it doesn't give you the feel of the real RC. So I can't answer if it was similar or different. In general though, I would do practice doing RC with 3 FULL length passages and do the read questions, skim passage for answer, read questions, skim passage for answers. For me, the technique of skimming the whole thing and then doing the questions never worked for me and I end up not having enough time to do the questions.

By detail questions I mean:

What's the average size of the dragon?
Then passage tells you the average size is 5ft. (example, not real answer)

How much does it eat?
passages says 2 ton.

nondetail questions would be like:
Does the author agree that the dragon should eat more veggies?

What sentence would you predict to be the last sentence of the last paragraph?

 

[naearls]

Sorry, what I meant was: how did the test compare to the official practice overall? I know the reading section is completely worthless, which is unfortunate because I really need to work on it. But aside from that what did you think?

 

[kiwi5frog]

Sorry, what I meant was: how did the test compare to the official practice overall? I know the reading section is completely worthless, which is unfortunate because I really need to work on it. But aside from that what did you think?

I never looked at the ASCO practice RC and actually wish I did. When I took kaplan, i never saw the question format "both are true, both are false, 1st is true/2nd false, 1st false/2nd true" type question. In the test, I got a crap ton of those.

 

[jtlangel]

I never looked at the ASCO practice RC and actually wish I did. When I took kaplan, i never saw the question format "both are true, both are false, 1st is true/2nd false, 1st false/2nd true" type question. In the test, I got a crap ton of those.

Really? You got a lot of those? When did you take it? I only got two of those.

 

[jtlangel]

Sorry, what I meant was: how did the test compare to the official practice overall? I know the reading section is completely worthless, which is unfortunate because I really need to work on it. But aside from that what did you think?

The real test is about the same difficulty as the practice one on the site.

 

[kiwi5frog]

Really? You got a lot of those? When did you take it? I only got two of those.

i took it last saturday. and when i say crap load...i mean crap load.

 

[naearls]

I never looked at the ASCO practice RC and actually wish I did. When I took kaplan, i never saw the question format "both are true, both are false, 1st is true/2nd false, 1st false/2nd true" type question. In the test, I got a crap ton of those.

I had 6 or 7, and I hadn't seen that type before either, but I didn't think they were that bad because they were mostly straightforward.

 

[lsmc888]

I just took the OAT today and I had no questions like that for RC. all straightforward

 

[OptomHope]

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

haha i think i had the same RC as you!! the third passage was about the Taste receptors and taste signal- transduction pathway?
The kimodo dragon passage was definitely my favorite

 

[OptomHope]

I had about 2 or 3 of those types of questions on RC.

I felt the actual test RC was much easier than the practice.. but that may have been because I took the RC on the real test much more seriously than on practice. Whenever I tried to study for that section my mind just wandered off.. i was getting about a 280 on the Kaplan practice, but managed to score a 370 on the real thing. My advice to test takers is to forget that you're writing a test in this section and actually engage yourself in the passage. I was so interested in all of my passages that when it came time to answer the questions i either knew all of the answers or knew exactly where to look to find them. So relax, read at a good pace, and hey.. you may even learn something from them!!