I'm currently trying to study for the OATs. I wanted to ask those who have already taken it how they studied? I feel a little overwhelmed right now with the amount of material. I have all the Kaplan material, but can't find the best way to study. Also, how much time do you suggest I need to study all the material. I'm planning on taking them in a month. I would really appreciate some feedback. Thanks! 🙂
Studying for OATs
- Thread starter brp327
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I crash coursed the Kaplan OAT book in a span of one month. I found that organic chemistry and chemistry takes the most time to prepare. As for math, swiftness is key. You may be able to solve problems, but on the test, it's all about speed. I tried to do around 2 - 4 sections per day and really grind it into memory. One word of caution would be that the actual OAT test does not take material from the Kaplan OAT book, but rather Kaplan tries to summarize to the best of their ability of the actual test content. Although only a few, I had questions on my OAT that weren't covered in the Kaplan study guide like feet and yard conversions for math as well as a very specific biotic zones for biology. It's good to review / have your school lecture notes beside you as you're going through the sections as well.
Good luck studying!
Good luck studying!
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I had to take the OAT twice in order to get a score that I was satisfied with. I also took the Kaplan course and the best thing about Kaplan is all the practice tests that they provide. The Subject tests also helped me tremendously.
I know you don't have a lot of time but I would try to read the Kaplan review book as fast as possible. Try to get through the book in little over two weeks. Then start doing all the subjects tests. I don't even think you should waste time in reviewing your school notes, it is unnecessary especially since you don't have the time to spare. Make sure you go through a lot of problems by doing subject tests and practice tests. This is where you'll do most of your learning and will make you feel comfortable about the test.
Also, don't even study QR. By the time you go through practice tests you should be pretty comfortable with the QR and RC.
Its also a pretty good idea to plan out your schedule for the next month. This really helped me stay focused and I knew exactly what had to be done for that day. I know it seems overwhelming at first but think of this as your one month challenge and go all out. What do you have to lose? I know you will do fine as long as you put in the hours of studying. Best of luck.
I know you don't have a lot of time but I would try to read the Kaplan review book as fast as possible. Try to get through the book in little over two weeks. Then start doing all the subjects tests. I don't even think you should waste time in reviewing your school notes, it is unnecessary especially since you don't have the time to spare. Make sure you go through a lot of problems by doing subject tests and practice tests. This is where you'll do most of your learning and will make you feel comfortable about the test.
Also, don't even study QR. By the time you go through practice tests you should be pretty comfortable with the QR and RC.
Its also a pretty good idea to plan out your schedule for the next month. This really helped me stay focused and I knew exactly what had to be done for that day. I know it seems overwhelming at first but think of this as your one month challenge and go all out. What do you have to lose? I know you will do fine as long as you put in the hours of studying. Best of luck.
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Since you only have a month I say do as many practice test as possible, and brush up on topics in the sciences that you may be uncomfortable. Keep in mind that the OAt is like the lottery, you can study but you can never study it all, and you never know what type of questions you may get. I took ithe OAT twice, and the best thing you can do is work on timing, pace your self, skip through questions and answer the ones you know for sure, don't waste time on questions where the answer doesn't pop out at you. Do what you know and when you have like 5 minutes left make sure you have an answer for every question. The OAT is about knowledge somehwat, but you can out smart the OAT by answering every question. SOmethign is better than nothing, and you will obe surprise how many more questions you can get right by guessing. 2 more correct answers could be the difference of like 20-30 points. Good Luck, study a little bit every day, and if possible get a study buddy! 🙂
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As others have already pointed out, go through your Kaplan OAT/DAT review book and do as many problems as you can so that you would be familiar with the styles of questions. I would suggest you to study the Biology, Chemistry and O. Chem since they would definitely take up some of your time for you to refresh what you had learned 2 years ago in Freshman/Sophomore year. I didn't study for QR or RC, but I would suggest you to try practicing some word Math problems because on my OAT test, I got tons of word problems that I didn't have enough time to read through and answer. So be prepare for it. For the Physics part, buy a MCAT book and scan through its Physic section, but probably it is not necessary to memorize every single equation, but be sure you know all those circuit (AC/DC), and also optics like the real image, mirros stuff. I am sure if you try to as many problems or questions in the review book and the CD-rom like the Topscore, you can get a very good score! Good luck!!
