TopScore Pro vs OAT Achiever

[rallthenamesgon]

To anyone who has used both of these programs or know about them, which would you say is the better study guide?

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[hokulele]

both are very helpful, however OAT Achiever does provide explanations for problems, while Top Score does not.

 

[Exphesh]

I can't comment on OAT achiever but I used Top Score Pro for the OAT. I really liked the program. It simulated the computerized testing environment really well. I found its questions to be harder than the actual OAT which helped freak me out and study harder. Its a good program to get comfortable with the testing environment and give you an idea of which sections and/or topics you should focus your studies (by seeing which sections you score lower in) Hope this helps.

 

[brownyeyed]

how long can you use OAT Achiever? does it have an expiration date like after 30 days? also, can you retake the tests or are you allowed to take each one just once?

 

[DiamondShamrock]

how long can you use OAT Achiever? does it have an expiration date like after 30 days? also, can you retake the tests or are you allowed to take each one just once?

As extracted from its website:

Note: Each copy of software is allotted only for a single license and a single PC/Laptop use, and will automatically expire 7 months (30 + [FONT=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]180. days) [FONT=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]from the day you install.ed [FONT=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]the .DEMO [FONT=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]program. (Contact us if it pre-maturely runs out.).

I suppose the DEMO will work for 30 days, following which a License Key will be needed for continued use.

Not sure about your last Q, but figure that you may get a definite answer by contacting the company directly.

 

[eyelectric]

I also cannot comment on OAT Achiever, but I did find TopScore very helpful for certain material. The licensing system sounds very similar to that of OAT Achiever, but I think TopScore expires sooner. Also, you should keep in mind that TopScore only has a bank of three tests. I'm not sure how this compares to the other program. Despite only having three tests, the material covered in the physics and math sections were very helpful. The problems they give you are somewhat harder than what you will see on the OAT, but the general prinicples are the same. Therefore if you can solve the TopScore problems, you can easily solve the problems on the real OAT. The process I used was to print out all the questions I got wrong and then follow up by researching formulas and concepts and solving the problems. This was also helpful for general chemistry and organic chemistry. The major drawback to TopScore is that it was useless when it came to biology. It asks a lot of questions which cover topics you will not see on the real OAT. If you choose to use this program I would recommend some other method of studying biology, such as ExamKrackers or just dusting off your old biology books.

 

[rallthenamesgon]

thanks for the advice eyelectric. I'm guessing that you have taken the OAT recently?

 

[eyelectric]

thanks for the advice eyelectric. I'm guessing that you have taken the OAT recently?

Yes, I just took my second round this past January. The first time around (back in September) I focused my studying entirely on biology and winged everything else. I'm sure that seems weird, but my background is in engineering and therefore biology was my weakest subject. My scores for that first round were:

QR 340
RC 330
BIO 320
GC 330
OC 290
PHY 330
AA 320
TS 330

As you can see, they were average and organic chemistry was pretty low. They might have been good enough to get into school, but I didn't want to chance it. So the second time around (in January) I used TopScore as my main study guide and it improved some of my scores quite a bit except for biology. My scores from January were:

QR 370
RC 380
BIO 290
GC 330
OC 320
PHY 380
AA 350
TS 320

To elaborate, TopScore was extremely helpful in physics, math and reading for both content and as a pace-setter. For general chemistry it was also pretty helpful and for organic chemistry it was helpful mostly with prinicples and not so much with reactions. For studying reactions, I ended up finding an extremely helpful website from Ohio State which had electronic organic chemsitry flash cards. If OChem is not your strong suit (it definitely isn't mine) then you should check it out (http://www.chemistry.ohio-state.edu/organic/flashcards/). Definitely take a look at the aromatics flash cards becasue I remember seeing a lot of aromatic reactions on the OAT. As for biology, the only thing I studied this time around was TopScore and that was a big mistake. I hope this has been helpful. Good luck!

 

[NeverGiveUp]

I believe OAT Achiever is the only CBT that comes with complete and detailed explanations, which I found to be extremely useful when preparing for my second OAT.