Took my OAT. SF (CA). Did better than I thought.

[aspiringdocfingerscrossed]

Hi all,

I went to UC Berkeley for my undergrad and didn't do so well GPA-wise. Overall I got a ~3.0 GPA, but I am currently taking extra classes to raise it. I failed organic chemistry twice as an undergrad. I always felt less capable than others in the sciences since my science GPA was catastrophic at UCB.

For the aforementioned reasons, my morale was low when I started studying for the OAT ~6 months ago. I figured that I could never truly do well on the test if I didn't perform well in the classes initially (even though I retook them and got As).

However, I'm here to tell you that you are 100% capable of getting a good OAT score even if you have a low GPA. All you have to do is put in time. I took a self-paced Kaplan course online. For ~3 months I fkd off and only studied only weekends. I seriously studied for ~1 month (6 hrs per day, 4 days/week on average). I bought the OAT Destroyer but I didn't even open it, planning on selling it off now.

Imo, Kaplan adequately prepared me for test day with the video tutorials and resource bank. Biology was harder than I expected and Ochem was much easier.

Kaplan Diagnostic: 300 AA
Kaplan Full-Length #1: 320 AA
Kaplan Full Length #2: 350 AA
Actual OAT: 360 AA / 370 TS

Never give up on your dreams. Even if they take time. Good luck to all who are applying this cycle.

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[deleted936320]

I am studying using the big kaplan book and also using chad's video. Did you feel prepared going into it? I don't even have close to the scores you got on your practice exams

 

[deleted936320]

i don't know if i can justify spending $1100 on the self paced course when I have the book. how was the self paced? did it take long?

 

[aspiringdocfingerscrossed]

I am studying using the big kaplan book and also using chad's video. Did you feel prepared going into it? I don't even have close to the scores you got on your practice exams

No, I didn't feel very prepared. I thought it was a fluke that I got a high practice test score the week before my test date. I don't think anyone ever feels 100% prepared though. I did move back my test date two weeks, and I think that pushing myself for those last 2 weeks made a difference in raising my score.

Personally, even though I was provided with a Kaplan book as a part of my self-paced course, I didn't use it much. I preferred the test bank questions and the video tutorials. The videos were more engaging and persisted in my memory. I would suggest using Chads videos like you are and doing more practice questions. If you do enough practice questions, you will encounter every type of problem that might get thrown at you on test day. Even if you don't do many full-length practice tests (I didn't since they're so time-consuming), try to do lots of practice problems.

Edit: Yes, it's a lot of money. I'm not sure if it's a justifiable amount. However, I don't know how I might have performed using another resource, so it's hard for me to say whether it's worth it. It's self-paced but it expires after 3-4 months, I believe. But Kaplan was really flexible and allowed me to extend my course every time I asked them, with no dispute whatsoever. So even after my course expired, I was able to extend it for two months. They extended it for me 3 times in total.

 

[deleted936320]

No, I didn't feel very prepared. I thought it was a fluke that I got a high practice test score the week before my test date. I don't think anyone ever feels 100% prepared though. I did move back my test date two weeks, and I think that pushing myself for those last 2 weeks made a difference in raising my score.

Personally, even though I was provided with a Kaplan book as a part of my self-paced course, I didn't use it much. I preferred the test bank questions and the video tutorials. The videos were more engaging and persisted in my memory. I would suggest using Chads videos like you are and doing more practice questions. If you do enough practice questions, you will encounter every type of problem that might get thrown at you on test day. Even if you don't do many full-length practice tests (I didn't since they're so time-consuming), try to do lots of practice problems.

I have been doing practice problems from cracktheoat and looked over my first kaplan practice test that I took. I write down the question, the answer, and sometimes the explanation and then move on. is that the right way? Or should i study it after I do that? my test was originally scheduled for monday but i moved it to the 8th of nov

 

[aspiringdocfingerscrossed]

I have been doing practice problems from cracktheoat and looked over my first kaplan practice test that I took. I write down the question, the answer, and sometimes the explanation and then move on. is that the right way? Or should i study it after I do that? my test was originally scheduled for monday but i moved it to the 8th of nov

That sounds like a good strategy.

 

[mar2018]

Could you do a mini breakdown for what you thought of each section and the best strategy for the subjects?

 

[optometrykid87]

Hi all,

I went to UC Berkeley for my undergrad and didn't do so well GPA-wise. Overall I got a ~3.0 GPA, but I am currently taking extra classes to raise it. I failed organic chemistry twice as an undergrad. I always felt less capable than others in the sciences since my science GPA was catastrophic at UCB.

For the aforementioned reasons, my morale was low when I started studying for the OAT ~6 months ago. I figured that I could never truly do well on the test if I didn't perform well in the classes initially (even though I retook them and got As).

However, I'm here to tell you that you are 100% capable of getting a good OAT score even if you have a low GPA. All you have to do is put in time. I took a self-paced Kaplan course online. For ~3 months I fkd off and only studied only weekends. I seriously studied for ~1 month (6 hrs per day, 4 days/week on average). I bought the OAT Destroyer but I didn't even open it, planning on selling it off now.

Imo, Kaplan adequately prepared me for test day with the video tutorials and resource bank. Biology was harder than I expected and Ochem was much easier.

Kaplan Diagnostic: 300 AA
Kaplan Full-Length #1: 320 AA
Kaplan Full Length #2: 350 AA
Actual OAT: 360 AA / 370 TS

Never give up on your dreams. Even if they take time. Good luck to all who are applying this cycle.

Congratulation on your scores! Did you see any Magnetism, Trigonometry and Geometry on the test?

 

[aspiringdocfingerscrossed]

Congratulation on your scores! Did you see any Magnetism, Trigonometry and Geometry on the test?

Thank you! There was no magnetism or trig on my version of the test, but I used the formula for finding the volume of a cylinder.

 

[aspiringdocfingerscrossed]

Could you do a mini breakdown for what you thought of each section and the best strategy for the subjects?

RC: 400. This was consistent with my practice tests. My strategy was to jot down a quick outline with key definitions or names from each paragraph. Ex: (1) James Arden, beta waves. I also used the highlight feature to help with active reading. I did not study for this section.

QR: 340. Unfortunately this was my lowest score out of all subjects. I figured it would be the easiest so I didn’t study for this section either, but I wish I had brushed up on probability and time calculations (i.e. if Person 1 does a task in 2 hours and Person 2 does the same task in 45 minutes, how long would they complete the task working together?) and I wish I knew more measurement conversions (feet to yards).

Biology: 360. Test questions were less straightforward than I had seen on Kaplan practice tests. For example, a few questions described an experiment that was conducted and asked you to analyze the results. My study strategy was to make flash cards of all the organ systems, hormones, etc.

General Chemistry: 380. This was very similar to Kaplan practice tests. Know all of your basic formulas. The gas constant, R, will be given to you. The best way to conquer this section is to do practice problems and get used to making quick calculations without a calculator.

Organic Chemistry: 340. This was way easier than Kaplan Ochem. I didn’t get any questions on stereochemistry, which was really emphasized during Kaplan prep. As other posts mention, know your reaction mechanisms! Those are most question types. There was a surprising amount of spectroscopy questions, and quite a few about most acidic Hs. Also quite a few of ring activators and deactivators, so know all of that like the back of your hand. Memorization > understanding mechanisms.

Physics: 360. Definitely lots of kinematic calculations here. I think practice problems help you finagle your way through problems that you might not be sure how to typically approach. There were lots of oddball problems where I didn’t know what to do, so I just winged it with my best intuition. Most posts that I have seen on sdn say that OAT physics is “just conceptual” but my section had a fair amount of calculations involved. So make sure you have your formulas down, and know units.

Sorry, I’m not sure if this is much help!

 

[mar2018]

RC: 400. This was consistent with my practice tests. My strategy was to jot down a quick outline with key definitions or names from each paragraph. Ex: (1) James Arden, beta waves. I also used the highlight feature to help with active reading. I did not study for this section.

QR: 340. Unfortunately this was my lowest score out of all subjects. I figured it would be the easiest so I didn’t study for this section either, but I wish I had brushed up on probability and time calculations (i.e. if Person 1 does a task in 2 hours and Person 2 does the same task in 45 minutes, how long would they complete the task working together?) and I wish I knew more measurement conversions (feet to yards).

Biology: 360. Test questions were less straightforward than I had seen on Kaplan practice tests. For example, a few questions described an experiment that was conducted and asked you to analyze the results. My study strategy was to make flash cards of all the organ systems, hormones, etc.

General Chemistry: 380. This was very similar to Kaplan practice tests. Know all of your basic formulas. The gas constant, R, will be given to you. The best way to conquer this section is to do practice problems and get used to making quick calculations without a calculator.

Organic Chemistry: 340. This was way easier than Kaplan Ochem. I didn’t get any questions on stereochemistry, which was really emphasized during Kaplan prep. As other posts mention, know your reaction mechanisms! Those are most question types. There was a surprising amount of spectroscopy questions, and quite a few about most acidic Hs. Also quite a few of ring activators and deactivators, so know all of that like the back of your hand. Memorization > understanding mechanisms.

Physics: 360. Definitely lots of kinematic calculations here. I think practice problems help you finagle your way through problems that you might not be sure how to typically approach. There were lots of oddball problems where I didn’t know what to do, so I just winged it with my best intuition. Most posts that I have seen on sdn say that OAT physics is “just conceptual” but my section had a fair amount of calculations involved. So make sure you have your formulas down, and know units.

Sorry, I’m not sure if this is much help!

That definitely helped! thankyou! For reading would you say it was straightforward? or did the questions require some analysis? and for bio was there alot of anatomy physiology/taxonomy?

 

[aspiringdocfingerscrossed]

That definitely helped! thankyou! For reading would you say it was straightforward? or did the questions require some analysis? and for bio was there alot of anatomy physiology/taxonomy?

I had no taxonomy or anatomy/physio questions on my test. And yeah the reading just involved locating phrases in the passage.

 

[mar2018]

I had no taxonomy or anatomy/physio questions on my test. And yeah the reading just involved locating phrases in the passage.

Thank you so much for everything! Congrats on your AMAZING scores! best of luck