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I was thinking that we could start up a thread of OAT Success Stories, and let other people know what we learned along the way. You know, just a paragraph or so to help people out in the future. These forums have already been a big help to me. I'll go first:
I happened to take the Princeton Review MCAT course before switching to Optometry, so I had their books which were extremely well written. I wouldn't advocate taking a review course if you can obtain the books and the homework schedule for the class from a friend. What I did was the reading & homework for the class MWF 4-6:30 when the class met during the school year, and then planned an alternative spring break for myself: OAT Study. I scheduled my OAT for the last Friday before school resumed, and spend the days finishing up reading & homework that I fell behind in during the quarter (because you probably will fall behind in the homework).
This gave me a really solid foundation in Bio, G-Chem, O-Chem, and also Physics. The verbal section of the test is not that challenging if you manage your time well, and simply skim the passage for a good mental outline/answer the questions as they appear. For the Math portion of the test, I borrowed a friend's Kaplan DAT book. If you can get an OAT/DAT book and use it for the Math, you'll also notice that there are some Biology things that are more heavily emphasized on the OAT that aren't given as much attention on the MCAT. Some examples I found were Vertebrate Embryology, Vascular Systems in Animals & Plants, Autotrophic Nutrition, Animal Behavior, Ecology, and Taxonomy. The Kaplan book was different from the Princeton Review in that it didn't go into much detail...it felt like reading an outline compared to the Princeton Review book's in-depth and smart discussion, but the Kaplan book did contain some great mnemonics and it had all the info more specifically needed, since the DAT people write the OAT.
I took one practice test a week for 4 weeks before the actual OAT. The first was a pseudo test given free by Kaplan. It was not computerized and it wasn't full length, but it was still useful. I set up my other 3 tests using OAT Achiever, which I found to be very helpful. The explanations were better than what you'd get from OAT Professor, but there's some great features about that website such as the "Learning Mode" where you can choose a number of questions and get instant explanations after you answer each question. It was very useful for me to review my practice tests after I finished them. I used OAT Achiver's Analysis Report and Detail Report to find the questions that I got wrong and what subject they related to.
The practice tests were a lot harder than the actual OAT, so I was freaking out going into the test since I was only scoring between 270-300 for my academic avg. However, it prepared me very well, and I ended up w/ a 360 AA and a 380 TS. So that's my story, I hope it helps!
I happened to take the Princeton Review MCAT course before switching to Optometry, so I had their books which were extremely well written. I wouldn't advocate taking a review course if you can obtain the books and the homework schedule for the class from a friend. What I did was the reading & homework for the class MWF 4-6:30 when the class met during the school year, and then planned an alternative spring break for myself: OAT Study. I scheduled my OAT for the last Friday before school resumed, and spend the days finishing up reading & homework that I fell behind in during the quarter (because you probably will fall behind in the homework).
This gave me a really solid foundation in Bio, G-Chem, O-Chem, and also Physics. The verbal section of the test is not that challenging if you manage your time well, and simply skim the passage for a good mental outline/answer the questions as they appear. For the Math portion of the test, I borrowed a friend's Kaplan DAT book. If you can get an OAT/DAT book and use it for the Math, you'll also notice that there are some Biology things that are more heavily emphasized on the OAT that aren't given as much attention on the MCAT. Some examples I found were Vertebrate Embryology, Vascular Systems in Animals & Plants, Autotrophic Nutrition, Animal Behavior, Ecology, and Taxonomy. The Kaplan book was different from the Princeton Review in that it didn't go into much detail...it felt like reading an outline compared to the Princeton Review book's in-depth and smart discussion, but the Kaplan book did contain some great mnemonics and it had all the info more specifically needed, since the DAT people write the OAT.
I took one practice test a week for 4 weeks before the actual OAT. The first was a pseudo test given free by Kaplan. It was not computerized and it wasn't full length, but it was still useful. I set up my other 3 tests using OAT Achiever, which I found to be very helpful. The explanations were better than what you'd get from OAT Professor, but there's some great features about that website such as the "Learning Mode" where you can choose a number of questions and get instant explanations after you answer each question. It was very useful for me to review my practice tests after I finished them. I used OAT Achiver's Analysis Report and Detail Report to find the questions that I got wrong and what subject they related to.
The practice tests were a lot harder than the actual OAT, so I was freaking out going into the test since I was only scoring between 270-300 for my academic avg. However, it prepared me very well, and I ended up w/ a 360 AA and a 380 TS. So that's my story, I hope it helps!
