Oat

[asa5]

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I will be retaking the OAT...and had a question about the Bio section.
There is a whole subject on plants, fugi, etc...what can i use to study that.
Also for those that retook the exam how did they prepare for Bio and GC.
Thanks

 

[pienfoo]

I will be retaking the OAT...and had a question about the Bio section.
There is a whole subject on plants, fugi, etc...what can i use to study that.
Also for those that retook the exam how did they prepare for Bio and GC.
Thanks

first off. i think that the many leeches on this site need to start contributing . 👎

anyway. for plants, you should probably know the basic anatomy of the male and female plants/flowers. also, photosynthesis is usually a section in the review books so i'd know the basics about that as well. otherwise, i think it's all up in the air so i would not recommend memorizing too much about plants. studying too much for bio cost me a decent score the first time, so don't study bio too much; it's an either you already know it or you don't section.

For GC. I look through my gen chembook and went over the important concepts from each chapter as well as the sample problems (make sure that the subject is covered on the OATs). Then, i did a couple of the problems in the back of the book which I thought would be OAT-type questions. After you do that u'll get a pretty good sense of your chem basics. Then you should use the big Kaplan review book, and look through everything. If you don't undersatnd one concept from the big kaplan book, your're in trouble, and should look for help from ur text or another source. otherwise, know how to solve problems quickly by knowing how to set up equations to get the answers quickly.

but again everyone has their own way or studying find what works for you. 😀

 

[asa5]

thanks a lot for your time!👍
even i noticed not many people here answer other people's post, but i usually sit and wait because i know some nice person will sooner or later

I have a OAT 2007-2008 Kaplan book with the 2 full practice tests...i wonder if that's the same as you mentioned.

Bio is my best subject however i only scored 300🙁....don't know why but could be because i reviewed my weaker subjects more plus i kind of forgot the 5 kingdom stuff...interestingly i found this to be harder than any other section!
as of GC wow seems so long ago i took it....about 5yrs! i know concepts just my problem solving is a bit slow...

 

[JackCM]

Bio seems to be generally harder for the people who are bio majors and have taken upper level courses. I didn't do that great on that section, and was asked about it on my interviews and when I said that I was probably just overanalyzing they said that they find a lot of bio majors are like that... so don't worry about that too much! I did best on Physics which is generally my worst subject.

 

[MojaOD]

Hey guys,
How can I find out what specific subjects will be covered on the OAT?
Thanks!

Study tips:
the OAT DESTROYER is awesome. I haven't taken the test yet, but the book is a great resource. Highly recommended. 🙂

 

[JackCM]

Go to https://www.ada.org/oat/oat_examinee_guide.pdf and start on page 30 (if you read the whole thing it's got a lot of good info). It has every topic on every section on the test.

 

[niss11]

hey guys - i only took the test once but my best scores were in bio and chem.
if you feel like you are going to over think the bio because you know it so well- you might want to consider looking at the cliffs ap bio book. it covers everything in a very simple way without overdoing it and it may help you focus on what you need to know for the oats since it doenst go into detail on the more complicated stuff (but enough to get you through the oats)

i also used the Destroyer which had an awesome bio section. those questions were right on target for what you need to know for the oats. some random stuff that wasnt mentioned in the cliffs book that might be good to know for the oats is discussed in here with great solutions so between the two youll definitely be prepared. this was all i used to study and i scored a 390 in this section and i hadnt taken bio in a really long time.

for chem i made review sheets of all the main concepts and than would do the probs in the destroyer which were very helpful and had great solutions. the only thing to help with time is to keep going over problems, so the more probs you can get your hands on the better!

good luck!

 

[asa5]

seems like a lot more people have used Destroyer which is a bit expensive. So far I have Kaplan blue book (wonder if it is the same one everyone mentions...with 2 full exams), Examkracker's texts, my own notes and Achiever.

 

[jdojos]

hey guys,

i agree that the destroyer is really good because it has so many questions and it covers pretty much everything. also, for bio, i used schaum's outlines for biology review. it covers everything and goes over plants/fungi/etc pretty thoroughly, but not overwhelmingly. i thought that it was better than the kaplan book, which i felt didn't delve deep enough. but like other people are saying...the actual test picks some pretty random nitpicky questions sometimes and it really is if you know it or not (or can guess the right answer or not).

as fas as GC, i went through my chem book and made a detailed review packet hitting all the main points. i also took the GC section on the practice oat on opted.org and used that to go over my strengths and weaknesses. i think that i used to get 280/290's on this section (i'm horrible at chem), but after doing all that i've gotten it up to 340/350.

anyways, hope that helps and good luck with studying!