Comp Froze!!!

[yvipine]

ok, so i took the oat's last week and sure... i was all prepped up for it and all. but does all go well??? worse nightmare occurred: i was on the reading section, and of course i'm trying to fully concentrate, then the whole comp froze for everyone at the center! so we all had to wait 20 friggin minutes for it to be fixed. once that was done, the test resumed (no time or answer was lost). BUT since it was a reading section, i ended up having to reread the passage and in the end, lost a lot of time. soooo... my reading score resulted in a 270. GRRR.... my TS is a 360 and my AA is a 340. yet i had to get a friggin 270 on reading. of course i'm mad, the 270 is basically an outlier in all of my scores. i contacted the OAT Program center, and they called me today telling me i can now retake the whole darn test (they pretty much allowed me to retake it w/o the 3 months wait). my question is, should i keep what i have or retake it. what do you think???

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[eye2eye]

OH MY GOD!


um...honestly I was going to say, "no don't retake it...that's too risky, what if you get a lower test score". BUT NOw THAT I REALLY THINK ABOUT IT...YOU SHOULD RETAKE IT FOR SURE!

you didn't get your score just because you got lucky right? obvioucly you studying and prepared...so why would you get lower scores? you probably will improve, because you have already taken it once and know what's coming to you. and you stil have time to prepare until the next one.

however, the only way you MIGHT get lower scores is if you have forgotten everything in the past week...but even if that is what happened...just review a lot and prepare again...I am sure once you read your notes and go over some stuff all over again...YOU WILL GET YOUR SCORE AND MAYBe BETTER!

I SAY ReTAKE!

(oh by the way...I hav heard that reading score is really important!)


one thing... how do you feel about your score? did you take kaplan or topscore or OATachiever? was your score on the OAT MUCH higher then you expected... if it was about what you expected...then i think you can't lower it by much and you should retake it!

ok that was long...sorry

 

[eye2eye]

oh and that really sucks that it happened to you...I HOPE IT ALL WORKS OUT FOR THE BEST!!!


=) great TS score!

 

[cpw]

wow.. that really sucks. My computer froze three times during my Florida written board exam. (ahh!) But, there was no timed reading section... wow.. I'm SO sorry that happened to you.

As much as it would suck... if you're gunning for a really competitive OD school (UCB, OHSU, UHCO) I'd retake.

 

[eye2eye]

I don't know why, but i was thinking for sure they are going to get rid of your original scores and replace it with the new ones...but now that I think about it...they are probably going to send this second set of scores to the schools as your "second time taking the OAT" right?

that sucks if they are not going to get rid of the first set...are they?

 

[alferec]

wow.. that really sucks. My computer froze three times during my Florida written board exam. (ahh!) But, there was no timed reading section... wow.. I'm SO sorry that happened to you.

As much as it would suck... if you're gunning for a really competitive OD school (UCB, OHSU, UHCO) I'd retake.

I got into UCB with a 270 QR score, and that was my only outlier (330 AA, 350 TS). But yeah, retaking might be the best option, but if not, explaining your situation in your application might help...

 

[yvipine]

I got into UCB with a 270 QR score, and that was my only outlier (330 AA, 350 TS). But yeah, retaking might be the best option, but if not, explaining your situation in your application might help...

nice!! that sure brings me hope here are my actual unofficial scores that i receive. my scores in bio and ochem is really high and i just don't want to take the risk of lowering it. seeing it now, do you think i should retake or not?

Bio 380
gchem 330
ochem 370
reading 270
physics 330
math 330
TS 360
AA 340

 

[eye2eye]

nice!! that sure brings me hope here are my actual unofficial scores that i receive. my scores in bio and ochem is really high and i just don't want to take the risk of lowering it. seeing it now, do you think i should retake or not?

Bio 380
gchem 330
ochem 370
reading 270
physics 330
math 330
TS 360
AA 340

1. are they going to send the schools these scores as well when you retake (because if they are going to sent them or have already sent them, then you still have to explain to the school, etc.) so in that case I would NOT retake...your scores are great I think...um i say keep them...

because if you get higher grades them might say "well it was your second time, so ofcourse they are higher" and you have to explain...same thing as just NOT retaking and just explaining that one score...

its a TOUGH ONE!

 

[yvipine]

 

[eye2eye]

i contacted the OAT Program center, and they called me today telling me i can now retake the whole darn test

you know what...call the OAT program center and act REALLY rEALLY MAD AND FRUSTRATED (not much acting needed, you are very mad and frustrated I AM SURE)

and TELL THEM THAT THIS IS INSANE!!! YOU SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO ONLY RETAKE THE READING PART...its not like it really matters...it will be close enough to the real test experience...TELL THEM YOU HaVE WORK...SCHOOL...AND OTHER THINGS YOU NEED TO DO TO PAY RENT, ETC. AND YOU CANNOT WASTE ANOTHER 5 HOURS ON THE TEST + all that time preparing again...

I don't know if it will help at all...BUT HONESTLY THIS IS NOT SOMETHING THAT YOU SHOULD BE PUNISHED FOR!!! make them make you a better offer...this is UNFAIR! (do you have a lawyer relative that can maybe help out).

honestly this sucks... BUT IT WILL WORK OUT...I AM SURE!

 

[yvipine]

I'm really gonna head that adrenaline of yours thanks for the encouragement! and by the way, did u know that the optometry admissions testing center is dealt by the american DENTAL association???!!! geeshh! no wonder they made the opt students sit w/ the dental students in the kaplan course.

 

[eye2eye]

I'm really gonna head that adrenaline of yours thanks for the encouragement! and by the way, did u know that the optometry admissions testing center is dealt by the american DENTAL association???!!! geeshh! no wonder they made the opt students sit w/ the dental students in the kaplan course.

ya the ADA write the OAT's...

GoodLuck

 

[DrSpontaneouz83]

I am taking a Kaplan OAT class right now and I am a HOT NERVOUS wreck. I work as a full time ophthalmic assistant (already did 1 yr of paraoptometric experience) and feel I don't have enough time to study (or maybe I am jus trying too hard to memorize the whole friggin book). I was wondering how your diagnostic scores were? Did they improve dramatically in the end?

Give me Hope!
Thanks.

 

[yvipine]

I am taking a Kaplan OAT class right now and I am a HOT NERVOUS wreck. I work as a full time ophthalmic assistant (already did 1 yr of paraoptometric experience) and feel I don't have enough time to study (or maybe I am jus trying too hard to memorize the whole friggin book). I was wondering how your diagnostic scores were? Did they improve dramatically in the end?

Give me Hope!
Thanks.

hi spontaneous, i took the kaplan course too but i didn't think that helped me much at all. my diagnostic scores were really low, probably in the mid 200s. i did take the last written OAT last year w/o much studying and memorizing like you, and i still managed a 320. but after strenuously studying the second time around, it paid off. i read the whole kaplan book and made sure i understood it more than memorizing it. It all just depends on how you're studying it now tho. You're going to do fine, just try to stay focus and everything will work out in the end.

 

[DrSpontaneouz83]

Thanks for replying yvipine. I
have been staying up until 3am studying these dayss..grr.. gonna take a nap.

 

[yvipine]

So i'm backk.... Yes, back on september 1st, my comp froze, then two weeks later, i retook it on sept 15th. I got similar scores after the retake, but i figured, okay, as least i got to retake the damn thing. I thot it'd be all fine and dandy after that, but hear this: if you've applied to UCBSO, you know there's a section where you have to report all of your scores for the OATs, how many times you've taken it. Berkeley actually called me up sometime after the deadline of applications for UCSBO which was Dec. 15, and actually questioned whether i falsely reported an extra set of OAT scores. They even said they called the OAT center for verification, and the OAT center said that they have no record of my scores of the retake on sept. 15!!!! sounds like the OAT center only allowed me to retake it so i would stop the complaining. They could've at least sent the scores that came w/ the retake. And although berkeley gave me an invite for an interview, do you think i should call up the oat center to give them a piece of my mind???? Apparently if berkeley didn't receive my retake scores, that means all of the other schools i've thot received them didn't either!! What if those other schools thot i'm full of BS?? and sadly, i am retaking the oat again next week to boost up my RC scores ONLY because SCCO wants it, AND because i can't get a refund if i decided to not take the damn test. i figured.. if i bicker enough to the oat center, maybe they'll finally let me take the test for FREE and actually keep a record of it... hmm... that'd be nice...cause that's 250 bucks right there! what do you think??

 

[Clovers]

have you gotten into any schools yet? your scores look great!

 

[princesspinknes]

So i'm backk.... Yes, back on september 1st, my comp froze, then two weeks later, i retook it on sept 15th. I got similar scores after the retake, but i figured, okay, as least i got to retake the damn thing. I thot it'd be all fine and dandy after that, but hear this: if you've applied to UCBSO, you know there's a section where you have to report all of your scores for the OATs, how many times you've taken it. Berkeley actually called me up sometime after the deadline of applications for UCSBO which was Dec. 15, and actually questioned whether i falsely reported an extra set of OAT scores. They even said they called the OAT center for verification, and the OAT center said that they have no record of my scores of the retake on sept. 15!!!! sounds like the OAT center only allowed me to retake it so i would stop the complaining. They could've at least sent the scores that came w/ the retake. And although berkeley gave me an invite for an interview, do you think i should call up the oat center to give them a piece of my mind???? Apparently if berkeley didn't receive my retake scores, that means all of the other schools i've thot received them didn't either!! What if those other schools thot i'm full of BS?? and sadly, i am retaking the oat again next week to boost up my RC scores ONLY because SCCO wants it, AND because i can't get a refund if i decided to not take the damn test. i figured.. if i bicker enough to the oat center, maybe they'll finally let me take the test for FREE and actually keep a record of it... hmm... that'd be nice...cause that's 250 bucks right there! what do you think??

let them buuurn