I took the OAT in august and am taking it again next week to try to get into my top choice Opt school. I haven't even bothered looking at any reading comps and I want to know your take on this. For my first exam i OVER studied and ended up wasting a lot of time. For example, I practiced a bunch of reading comps and was scoring between 300 and 390 but it all depended on the material in the passage. My august OAT had a passage on pianos and I feel like I couldn't grasp the concepts in order to answer the questions. From other peoples experiences, does the OAT generally consist mostly of science reading comps or will it vary? I knew nothing at all about pianos or music, but I would have probably done much better had it been on a science topic. Please let me know, so I can decide whether to even practice reading comps this week or stick studying to my weaker subjects. thanks!
Reaading Comp
- Thread starter cserra87
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The OAT reading passages can either be non-science or science related... it all depends on the random selection the computer makes, I believe. Good luck!!
Really it depends on your definition of science. Most of the passages are related to science/engineering/etc. but you never know exactly what you'll get. That's the one thing I HATE about RC though! I'll bet you if I took three different RC OAT sections on three different days, I'd have a high variance rate between my scores.
Im glad I wasnt the only one... It was pure torture, and i just hope I dont get anything dealing with music on Monday... But I'm optomistic now because I took the opted practice test and got a 400 on RC... I am keeping my fingers tightly crossed it's on something I can actually understand.. yikes!
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Does anyone else find it humorous that "reading" was spelled wrong for a post about RC? 😛
OP: The passages are technical writing... I think USUALLY scientific, but covering the whole spectrum of sciences. For example, one of mine was about bridges. I don't know how long you have until you take the test, but reading scientific journals helps A LOT. I'd gather some papers from scientific journals on topics that you ARE NOT interested in and practice your speed AND comprehension. Things are always easier to read and understand when the topic is something you're interested in, so prepare for the likely probability that you WON'T be interested in the passages.
OP: The passages are technical writing... I think USUALLY scientific, but covering the whole spectrum of sciences. For example, one of mine was about bridges. I don't know how long you have until you take the test, but reading scientific journals helps A LOT. I'd gather some papers from scientific journals on topics that you ARE NOT interested in and practice your speed AND comprehension. Things are always easier to read and understand when the topic is something you're interested in, so prepare for the likely probability that you WON'T be interested in the passages.
I wrote an article on RC strategy here: http://optometrystudents.com/oat-test-prep-reading-comprehension/
And one of my study tips was EXACTLY what you said there. Here's how I phrased it:
"Articles you find interesting are usually much easier to digest but you must be prepared for anything. So dont only pick interesting ones, because you need to make sure you can effectively read ANY article the OAT test-makers might throw at you!"
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Haha great minds think alike 😀 I can only assume you're a SUNY Albany person, since you're not SUNY-O!
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