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So I've been following this forum for the past two years and I have been "studying" about the OAT long before I was even studying the material for the test. These forums have been an extremely great help throughout this whole process and at times kept me at ease and also made me very skeptical. I'm going to try and be as descriptive as I can in order to hopefully allow for other people to perceive it based on how they would go about doing everything. So let's dive in...
Going into the start of studying Biology was my worst subject because of how long it was since I had last taken a course, and there was just so much memorization. What really helped me was the fact that I retook a biology course during the summer semester, which was sort of like a combined course of Biology I and II, and it ended up being one of my highest scores on the OAT
Here's a break down of the practice exams that I took along along with the dates of when I took them..
BIO/ GC/ OC/ RC/ PHY/ QR
Kaplan Diagnostic:
230/ 270/ 260/ 300/ 250/ 270
AA: 260
TS: 240
Kaplan Full Length 1:
310/ 280/ 230/ 310/ 240/ 260
AA: 270
TS: 280
Kaplan Full Length 2:
320/ 300/ 230/ 340/ 240/ 260
AA: 280
TS: 270
Kaplan Full Length 3:
340/ 250/ 270/ 340/ 220/ 260
AA: 280
TS: 260
ADA (Free):
360/ 250/ 310/ n/a / 280/ n/a
AA: n/a
TS: n/a
ADA (Paid)
380/ 340/ 380/ 360/ 330/ 340
AA: 360
TS: 360
I took the Kaplan diagnostic on 01/23/18 thinking the I was going to try and study for the OAT while simultaneously taking prerequisite courses during the same semester.. (which I didn't). Kap 1 was taken on 08/17/18, Kap 2 on 08/22/18, and Kap 3 on 08/30/18. I was literally freaking about my scores because of how everything was fluctuating and my scores averaging over 300 asides from RC and BIO..
The week of my test date, I took the ADA (free) and skipped RC and QR (because I was brain dead) and that's how I tested... I again decided to freak out because of my GC score.. I foolishly bought the paid $100 practice test from ADA and as what most people have said on here, a lot of the questions were exactly the same ones as the free practice test.. And that kind of gave me a false reading on how "prepared" I was..
So now, this is what really went down..
Actual OAT (09/07/18):
BIO/ GC/ OC/ RC/ PHY/ QR
330/ 330/ 310/ 310/ 260/ 280
70%/ 67%/ 58%/ 38%/ 32%/ 24% (Percentile)
AA: 300
TS: 300
Test Day Breakdown (literally):
The day before my exam, I was literally breaking down and I felt extremely unprepared. Although I had been studying two months straight, every day without rest I felt so lost. I actually felt very confident going into studying mode, but the anxiety just hit me and I guess that it is expected considering it is THE test that makes a very huge factor on your application.. What hurt me the most was obviously Physics
and QR and I just totally spaced on out on Physics and I shall explain that later on..
Biology:
I did not feel very worried about this section at all because of how well I was scoring in my practice exams, but honestly this section was very difficult and I felt that it was more difficult that Kaplan's practice exams. Was rather upset about how I scored in this section but the percentile in this section makes it seem like it was a difficult one for most people. I had a lot of anatomy and physiology questions that I wasn't really too familiar with and genetic questions involving more than three gene frequency crossings etc.. In terms of difficulty of the questions, I would say that Kaplan's questions are realistic to the exam but again it is totally random in terms of topics, just be familiar with a broad spectrum of topics. Understanding the fundamentals of molecular biology can help you find the answer to something you may not have any familiarity with (which helped me in some of the anatomy/physiology questions)
General Chemistry:
I was very anxious about this section because of my inconsistencies in my practice exam scores. Like what most people say, a lot of it is very conceptual and I probably had a couple questions that required minimal calculations, but the numbers worked out nicely. I had questions on molecular geometry, and also nomenclature which I never was exposed to during any Kaplan questions. Overall, it wasn't too bad of a section.
Organic Chemistry:
I was actually very surprised that I didn't score below 300 in this section because of how unprepared I was. It is definitely WAY more simple and easier than Kaplan's questions. Chad's Videos (Chemistry Prep) was extremely helpful here and I probably would've bombed this section without him LOL. But I had a handful of NMR/ IR questions that I had absolutely no idea how to answer, but if you know your reactants and can predict the products it's a rather easy section. Make sure you are able to recognize condensed structures very quickly or write them out bond line structures.
Reading Comprehension:
I also wasn't too concerned with this section because of my consistency in scoring within the practice tests but out of the three passages that I got, only one of them was pretty simple to grasp. The key here is to just to pick and answer and mark it for later if it is taking a long time for you to find the answer. Timing here is key and I probably would've scored better if I took more reading passage practice exams. Also, I did have a few questions where it would ask about the tone of the author which I didn't really get on Kaplan tests..
Break:
I brought my physics notes and QR notes with me and looked at them during my scheduled break. I honestly just looked at stuff and I knew I wasn't going to do well honestly..
Physics:
Very upsetting because out of all the sections I would say that I would've been the easiest if I was prepared for it. Kaplan Physics has been known to be extremely hard and it is definitely not representative of the exam. The ADA exams are very similar in terms of difficulty. I would say a big bulk of the questions involved conceptual knowledge of kinematics and forces. I guessed on a lot of the other topics I didn't have time to review such as electrostatics, wave optics, etc..
Quantitative Reasoning:
I knew I was going to do very bad on this section as math has always been my worst subject. I would say that DAT Bootcamp's free QR practice test is reflective of how it is on the actual OAT. I had a lot of quantitative comparison questions so be prepared for that. I did not have any data sufficiency questions and yes there is geometry and a little trig on there. I have always been a slow test taker on math tests and I didn't really have much practice on this section. If you're pretty good at math, you should be solid on this section.
Study Sources:
Chad's Videos (Chemistry Prep/Coursesaver)
-Extremely helpful for organic, general chemistry and physics.
-A lot of the questions on the exam were structured very similarly to the questions he has on his quizzes.
- On a side note, I felt that a huge contributor in me not having enough time to cover a lot of material was due to the fact that I would only watch his videos and attempt to do the quizzes but I wouldn't move on to the next section unless I felt comfortable with it. By consistently doing practice questions, you eventually learn and understand the concepts at the same time.
OAT Destroyer
-Very helpful for biology, definitely reflects the type of questions you would see on the OAT
- Good source of practice for ochem and gen chem, but there are a handful of difficult ones that you wouldn't likely see on the actual exam, so I would just go through the "simpler" questions on the destroyer that could help reinforce concepts.
- Didn't even bother using it for physics as it just over complicated things, but Math destroyer was very helpful.
Kaplan Self Paced
- The practice exams themselves were very helpful, as it definitely got my mind used to sitting through an exam for 4.5 hours.
- The Qbank was very useful for studying for biology. But again some of the questions were a little too difficult with all the other subjects.
- The online "workshops" that are included in the online course were helpful and the quantitative comparison workshops helped me a lot.
Reflection/Advice:
Honestly, from what most people have told me and what I've observed, you're never going to feel prepared for this test. (Unless you're a living database of information). I would've done a lot better if I hadn't felt too stressed out the day before or the week of. I burnt out and all the information I thought I knew got lost. The test is randomized and it's a part of luck honestly, you either got a test where all the material you studied for is on there or you got a version of the test that you had no idea about the content on.
Overall, I am happy that I am finally done with this tedious process of studying nonstop and I can finally live life with a little less of a weight on my back. I definitely did not score where I wanted to, but I know my scores aren't the end of the world. I definitely could've done better but in the end I knew what I knew and we shall see where it takes me..
Lastly, take this all with a grain of salt because everyone is difficult and learns in different ways but hopefully it gives you guy some insight on what to expect come test day!
Going into the start of studying Biology was my worst subject because of how long it was since I had last taken a course, and there was just so much memorization. What really helped me was the fact that I retook a biology course during the summer semester, which was sort of like a combined course of Biology I and II, and it ended up being one of my highest scores on the OAT
Here's a break down of the practice exams that I took along along with the dates of when I took them..
BIO/ GC/ OC/ RC/ PHY/ QR
Kaplan Diagnostic:
230/ 270/ 260/ 300/ 250/ 270
AA: 260
TS: 240
Kaplan Full Length 1:
310/ 280/ 230/ 310/ 240/ 260
AA: 270
TS: 280
Kaplan Full Length 2:
320/ 300/ 230/ 340/ 240/ 260
AA: 280
TS: 270
Kaplan Full Length 3:
340/ 250/ 270/ 340/ 220/ 260
AA: 280
TS: 260
ADA (Free):
360/ 250/ 310/ n/a / 280/ n/a
AA: n/a
TS: n/a
ADA (Paid)
380/ 340/ 380/ 360/ 330/ 340
AA: 360
TS: 360
I took the Kaplan diagnostic on 01/23/18 thinking the I was going to try and study for the OAT while simultaneously taking prerequisite courses during the same semester.. (which I didn't). Kap 1 was taken on 08/17/18, Kap 2 on 08/22/18, and Kap 3 on 08/30/18. I was literally freaking about my scores because of how everything was fluctuating and my scores averaging over 300 asides from RC and BIO..
The week of my test date, I took the ADA (free) and skipped RC and QR (because I was brain dead) and that's how I tested... I again decided to freak out because of my GC score.. I foolishly bought the paid $100 practice test from ADA and as what most people have said on here, a lot of the questions were exactly the same ones as the free practice test.. And that kind of gave me a false reading on how "prepared" I was..
So now, this is what really went down..
Actual OAT (09/07/18):
BIO/ GC/ OC/ RC/ PHY/ QR
330/ 330/ 310/ 310/ 260/ 280
70%/ 67%/ 58%/ 38%/ 32%/ 24% (Percentile)
AA: 300
TS: 300
Test Day Breakdown (literally):
The day before my exam, I was literally breaking down and I felt extremely unprepared. Although I had been studying two months straight, every day without rest I felt so lost. I actually felt very confident going into studying mode, but the anxiety just hit me and I guess that it is expected considering it is THE test that makes a very huge factor on your application.. What hurt me the most was obviously Physics
and QR and I just totally spaced on out on Physics and I shall explain that later on..Biology:
I did not feel very worried about this section at all because of how well I was scoring in my practice exams, but honestly this section was very difficult and I felt that it was more difficult that Kaplan's practice exams. Was rather upset about how I scored in this section but the percentile in this section makes it seem like it was a difficult one for most people. I had a lot of anatomy and physiology questions that I wasn't really too familiar with and genetic questions involving more than three gene frequency crossings etc.. In terms of difficulty of the questions, I would say that Kaplan's questions are realistic to the exam but again it is totally random in terms of topics, just be familiar with a broad spectrum of topics. Understanding the fundamentals of molecular biology can help you find the answer to something you may not have any familiarity with (which helped me in some of the anatomy/physiology questions)
General Chemistry:
I was very anxious about this section because of my inconsistencies in my practice exam scores. Like what most people say, a lot of it is very conceptual and I probably had a couple questions that required minimal calculations, but the numbers worked out nicely. I had questions on molecular geometry, and also nomenclature which I never was exposed to during any Kaplan questions. Overall, it wasn't too bad of a section.
Organic Chemistry:
I was actually very surprised that I didn't score below 300 in this section because of how unprepared I was. It is definitely WAY more simple and easier than Kaplan's questions. Chad's Videos (Chemistry Prep) was extremely helpful here and I probably would've bombed this section without him LOL. But I had a handful of NMR/ IR questions that I had absolutely no idea how to answer, but if you know your reactants and can predict the products it's a rather easy section. Make sure you are able to recognize condensed structures very quickly or write them out bond line structures.
Reading Comprehension:
I also wasn't too concerned with this section because of my consistency in scoring within the practice tests but out of the three passages that I got, only one of them was pretty simple to grasp. The key here is to just to pick and answer and mark it for later if it is taking a long time for you to find the answer. Timing here is key and I probably would've scored better if I took more reading passage practice exams. Also, I did have a few questions where it would ask about the tone of the author which I didn't really get on Kaplan tests..
Break:
I brought my physics notes and QR notes with me and looked at them during my scheduled break. I honestly just looked at stuff and I knew I wasn't going to do well honestly..
Physics:
Very upsetting because out of all the sections I would say that I would've been the easiest if I was prepared for it. Kaplan Physics has been known to be extremely hard and it is definitely not representative of the exam. The ADA exams are very similar in terms of difficulty. I would say a big bulk of the questions involved conceptual knowledge of kinematics and forces. I guessed on a lot of the other topics I didn't have time to review such as electrostatics, wave optics, etc..
Quantitative Reasoning:
I knew I was going to do very bad on this section as math has always been my worst subject. I would say that DAT Bootcamp's free QR practice test is reflective of how it is on the actual OAT. I had a lot of quantitative comparison questions so be prepared for that. I did not have any data sufficiency questions and yes there is geometry and a little trig on there. I have always been a slow test taker on math tests and I didn't really have much practice on this section. If you're pretty good at math, you should be solid on this section.
Study Sources:
Chad's Videos (Chemistry Prep/Coursesaver)
-Extremely helpful for organic, general chemistry and physics.
-A lot of the questions on the exam were structured very similarly to the questions he has on his quizzes.
- On a side note, I felt that a huge contributor in me not having enough time to cover a lot of material was due to the fact that I would only watch his videos and attempt to do the quizzes but I wouldn't move on to the next section unless I felt comfortable with it. By consistently doing practice questions, you eventually learn and understand the concepts at the same time.
OAT Destroyer
-Very helpful for biology, definitely reflects the type of questions you would see on the OAT
- Good source of practice for ochem and gen chem, but there are a handful of difficult ones that you wouldn't likely see on the actual exam, so I would just go through the "simpler" questions on the destroyer that could help reinforce concepts.
- Didn't even bother using it for physics as it just over complicated things, but Math destroyer was very helpful.
Kaplan Self Paced
- The practice exams themselves were very helpful, as it definitely got my mind used to sitting through an exam for 4.5 hours.
- The Qbank was very useful for studying for biology. But again some of the questions were a little too difficult with all the other subjects.
- The online "workshops" that are included in the online course were helpful and the quantitative comparison workshops helped me a lot.
Reflection/Advice:
Honestly, from what most people have told me and what I've observed, you're never going to feel prepared for this test. (Unless you're a living database of information). I would've done a lot better if I hadn't felt too stressed out the day before or the week of. I burnt out and all the information I thought I knew got lost. The test is randomized and it's a part of luck honestly, you either got a test where all the material you studied for is on there or you got a version of the test that you had no idea about the content on.
Overall, I am happy that I am finally done with this tedious process of studying nonstop and I can finally live life with a little less of a weight on my back. I definitely did not score where I wanted to, but I know my scores aren't the end of the world. I definitely could've done better but in the end I knew what I knew and we shall see where it takes me..
Lastly, take this all with a grain of salt because everyone is difficult and learns in different ways but hopefully it gives you guy some insight on what to expect come test day!
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