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Ok so i just took my test this week. And here are my thoughts.
Bio - Very random. I was worried about this section after taking the achiever because I was scoring so low, so I went out and bought the Cliffs AP Biology book, and it worked like a champ. It's a great review for the sections you don't know. I reviewed Taxonomy, developmental biology, and plants. I've heard from people that there tests had quite a bit of plants, but I didn't have any thank goodness.
Chem - Just know your basic stuff. Nothing unexpected. The kaplan OAT book that has all the practice problems are pretty similar. The Achiever has this part pretty close too, even though they ask some ridiculous questions.
Ochem- Know sn1, sn2, e1, e2. It'll save you time and know your equations.
Phy- I'm so glad there was a lot of problems dealing with the big 4 equations with velocity and acceleration. (This can change obviously so don't just study those) Oh and the math on all these guys is ALOT easier than the achiever and kaplan. KAPLAN & Achiever throws out ridiculous numbers some times that just can't be done with out spending 5 mintues without a calculator. Don't worry. As long as you have your exponents down, you'll be in the clear. Also there were a few questions about units. ex. what's the units of this constant. I think the only constant i had to use was h & G. And they gave me G, I didn't even look to see if they gave me h.
QR - the ADA is a good scale. the probability on the achiever is hard, but the rest was similar. kaplan's math gives you a good idea. My best suggestion here, if you don't know how to do it or it looks hard skip it! There are easy questions on the test, and if you waste time with the hard ones you won't get to the easy ones. Know how to do.. if jack is 4 years older than jill problems, or jack paints a wall in 4 minutes and jill in 3 how long if they paint together kinds. Those were on every practice test and on the test multiple times. Also I never had enough time to finish the math on any practice test except for on the ADA, but I think it's because I started skipping the hard ones. So try it on the practice test to see if it works for you. Don't forget to know your exponents!
RC- If after the test you asked me what section I did the best in, I would have said this. But obviously it was my worst. These sections were alot easier than the achiever (seeing a trend here?), similar to kaplan and ada. This was obviously going to be my worst section, but I thought I did better.
Study materials:
KAPLAN OAT Review Notes (HUGE BOOK) w/ flashcards & cheat sheets
Kaplan OAT 4th edition practice problems
AP Bio Cliff notes
OAT Achiever
Thoughts on study materials:
Achiever was hard. They had a million of is it 1 and 2 is it 1 and 3 or is it 1,2,3,4,5,6, and 7. I had NONE of those on the actual test! On a positive note, the achiever does let you see what sections your struggling on. So after I missed every question about chorion, amnion, yolk sac, I decided to get the cliff ap bio. This explains it really well, and it even has practice problems in the back. Go over those if you have time, they only help. KAPLAN was probably the most accurate. If you have enough time to go over the OAT Review notes... you'll be headed in the right direction. The tests from the 4th edition are awesome. Here's why... If you miss a question it tells you why every answer was wrong, and why the right one was right. The achiever just tells you why the right one is right. Make sure after you take any practice test you go back and see what the right answer is. Learn from your mistakes. It's one of the better things i did.
So i studied for 6 weeks. Read through the OAT review notes, did the practice problems at the end of the sections. Then did the Kaplan 4th edition, then said let's try the achiever. Then I took the ADA test 2 days before my actual test. Here's how my scores turned out:
KAPLAN online/ACHIEVER 1/2/3/ ADA/ OAT
Bio- 340/330/290/290/360/360
Chem- 330/340/320/300/350/340
Org- 300/340/340/350/330/350
Phy- 310/320/300/300/320/350
QR- 390/300/320/340/340/390
RC- 290/280/300/250/360/310
TS- 360
AA- 350 - 93rd percentile
Ok so maybe if you want to get the achiever get it, so you'll know what the hardest test you'll take will look like is. But if you don't have that much time... KAPLAN stuff is the way to go. I'm selling all my stuff so message me if you're interested.
Also if you know all the equations on the physics cheat sheet kaplan has and know how to use them... you'll be in good shape
My final words: DON'T GET DISCOURAGED! I found my self down because I was not doing too hot on the achiever, but don't worry it gets better! During your test stay confident! Don't worry about the questions you don't know. Focus on the ones that you do. Keep studying! Oh and if you're a just a sophmore and have just taken ochem and physics I would suggest taking this to see how you would do! It's all fresh on your mind, and you won't have to study nearly as much..
peace and blessings
Bio - Very random. I was worried about this section after taking the achiever because I was scoring so low, so I went out and bought the Cliffs AP Biology book, and it worked like a champ. It's a great review for the sections you don't know. I reviewed Taxonomy, developmental biology, and plants. I've heard from people that there tests had quite a bit of plants, but I didn't have any thank goodness.
Chem - Just know your basic stuff. Nothing unexpected. The kaplan OAT book that has all the practice problems are pretty similar. The Achiever has this part pretty close too, even though they ask some ridiculous questions.
Ochem- Know sn1, sn2, e1, e2. It'll save you time and know your equations.
Phy- I'm so glad there was a lot of problems dealing with the big 4 equations with velocity and acceleration. (This can change obviously so don't just study those) Oh and the math on all these guys is ALOT easier than the achiever and kaplan. KAPLAN & Achiever throws out ridiculous numbers some times that just can't be done with out spending 5 mintues without a calculator. Don't worry. As long as you have your exponents down, you'll be in the clear. Also there were a few questions about units. ex. what's the units of this constant. I think the only constant i had to use was h & G. And they gave me G, I didn't even look to see if they gave me h.
QR - the ADA is a good scale. the probability on the achiever is hard, but the rest was similar. kaplan's math gives you a good idea. My best suggestion here, if you don't know how to do it or it looks hard skip it! There are easy questions on the test, and if you waste time with the hard ones you won't get to the easy ones. Know how to do.. if jack is 4 years older than jill problems, or jack paints a wall in 4 minutes and jill in 3 how long if they paint together kinds. Those were on every practice test and on the test multiple times. Also I never had enough time to finish the math on any practice test except for on the ADA, but I think it's because I started skipping the hard ones. So try it on the practice test to see if it works for you. Don't forget to know your exponents!
RC- If after the test you asked me what section I did the best in, I would have said this. But obviously it was my worst. These sections were alot easier than the achiever (seeing a trend here?), similar to kaplan and ada. This was obviously going to be my worst section, but I thought I did better.
Study materials:
KAPLAN OAT Review Notes (HUGE BOOK) w/ flashcards & cheat sheets
Kaplan OAT 4th edition practice problems
AP Bio Cliff notes
OAT Achiever
Thoughts on study materials:
Achiever was hard. They had a million of is it 1 and 2 is it 1 and 3 or is it 1,2,3,4,5,6, and 7. I had NONE of those on the actual test! On a positive note, the achiever does let you see what sections your struggling on. So after I missed every question about chorion, amnion, yolk sac, I decided to get the cliff ap bio. This explains it really well, and it even has practice problems in the back. Go over those if you have time, they only help. KAPLAN was probably the most accurate. If you have enough time to go over the OAT Review notes... you'll be headed in the right direction. The tests from the 4th edition are awesome. Here's why... If you miss a question it tells you why every answer was wrong, and why the right one was right. The achiever just tells you why the right one is right. Make sure after you take any practice test you go back and see what the right answer is. Learn from your mistakes. It's one of the better things i did.
So i studied for 6 weeks. Read through the OAT review notes, did the practice problems at the end of the sections. Then did the Kaplan 4th edition, then said let's try the achiever. Then I took the ADA test 2 days before my actual test. Here's how my scores turned out:
KAPLAN online/ACHIEVER 1/2/3/ ADA/ OAT
Bio- 340/330/290/290/360/360
Chem- 330/340/320/300/350/340
Org- 300/340/340/350/330/350
Phy- 310/320/300/300/320/350
QR- 390/300/320/340/340/390
RC- 290/280/300/250/360/310
TS- 360
AA- 350 - 93rd percentile
Ok so maybe if you want to get the achiever get it, so you'll know what the hardest test you'll take will look like is. But if you don't have that much time... KAPLAN stuff is the way to go. I'm selling all my stuff so message me if you're interested.
Also if you know all the equations on the physics cheat sheet kaplan has and know how to use them... you'll be in good shape
My final words: DON'T GET DISCOURAGED! I found my self down because I was not doing too hot on the achiever, but don't worry it gets better! During your test stay confident! Don't worry about the questions you don't know. Focus on the ones that you do. Keep studying! Oh and if you're a just a sophmore and have just taken ochem and physics I would suggest taking this to see how you would do! It's all fresh on your mind, and you won't have to study nearly as much..
peace and blessings
