When to take the OAT

[rickmtz5]

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Hey everyone, I plan on taking the OAT pretty soon, and I wanted to get y'alls advice before signing up. I know the OAT includes biology and organic chemistry (courses that I will be taking this upcoming fall semester) so would it be better if I took the OAT in december since I'd be more familiar with those subjects? Or should I take it this August and take it again in December? Also, if I did wait till december, should I still submit my application with optomcas in July-August? Or should I wait till I've taken the OAT? please help! Thanks 🙂

 

[csandova]

Bio you could probably teach yourself, orgo in my opinion is a little more complicated to learn and study on your own but if you think you can do it, then more power to you. If you have the money and time and study and take it in August, it wouldn't hurt. However if you haven't taken the subjects before, I would suggest taking a few practice tests before signing up for the real test and seeing how you do. It's not terribly hard. December is still relatively early to submit your scores. Schools say you're in good shape if you have everything submitted by Dec-Jan (my roommate interviewed in January and was accepted). You should still submit your application in July though. Your OAT won't be the only part of your application, and by submitting early you will have a head start. Schools will already be looking at the rest of your application. It's preferable to have schools waiting on 1 part of your application than waiting on the whole thing. Also there will be way more people submitting applications in December than July so the pool of applicants that you'll be competing against will be much larger.

 

[tkuhug]

Yes, submit early!! Personally I am going to take the science classes first before taking the OAT. I think different schools have different OAT due dates so check on that!!

 

[optomvt]

Yes, submit early!! Personally I am going to take the science classes first before taking the OAT. I think different schools have different OAT due dates so check on that!!

Definitely recommend submitting early. OAT scores are considered a part of the application so they're due by the application deadline for each school. Some of those are in February/March, others as late as May. Keep in mind it takes the schools up to 4 weeks to receive the official OAT scores.