EDIT: All study materials have been sold, sorry!!
Hi all!
I just took the OAT today (Aug. 25, 2014), and since this forum has been so helpful for me, I'd like to give back a little by detailing my experience. It might turn out a bit long, so I apologize for the length. I'm not very good at condensing things and I don't want to leave anything out.
My Educational Background
I am from Vancouver and attending UBC. I will be heading into first year Pharmacy this coming September (2014), and it will be my 3rd year in University. Prior to getting into Pharmacy, I was in Microbiology.
As part of my first two years, I have already taken courses that covered most of what was tested on the OAT. I'm happy about getting into Pharmacy, and content with staying there, but I want to give Optometry a shot. I will only be applying to Waterloo, as it's the only school I can apply for before I get my Bachelor's Degree. My grade average so far for Science courses is 84.5%. For those who wish to know my OAT score, it is attached, and also detailed at the end of this post.
Study Materials
Kaplan Big Book, Cracking the OAT, and OAT Destroyer. Also watched the free Biology videos from Chad's Videos, and bought the Physics quizzes since the OAT Destroyer I used didn't have a Physics section.
Study Pattern
I began studying during the first week of July. I began with studying Physics off "Cracking the OAT", and then made a rough plan to get through the other sections in the Kaplan book by the end of July. All I did was look at the length of each section and estimated that I could cover ~30 pages a day. I took notes, and marked topics that I was unfamiliar with or was fuzzy on. At the same time, I was taking a summer course (Physiology). It took up a lot of my time, but it was also good because I ended up just having to skim through the Physiology related sections in the Kaplan book, and gave me more time for other sections.
I was able to stick to my rough schedule and finish going through the Kaplan book by the end of July. The following week I slacked off and didn't do much, but had to start studying for my Physiology final which was Aug. 12. I ended up not doing very well in that course...so I definitely regret slacking off, but it's okay.
After my final I started focussing completely on the OAT. At this point, I had a bit less than 2 weeks left to study. I took a few days to quickly review everything.I went through "Cracking the OAT" again, doing the practice problems for the sections I was fuzzy on, and also watching Chad's Bio Videos to go along with my Bio notes. For the other sections, I just reviewed my notes.
Then, I started on the Destroyer. This book is TOUGH. My first attempt at it was 40 questions from the Bio section, and I almost failed. Similar situation with O-Chem, but Math and G-Chem weren't as bad. I would go through in sets of however many I would see on the OAT. So 40 Q's for Bio, 30 for G-chem, and so on. While doing the question sets, I would circle all the questions that I was unsure of, and put a question mark next to the ones I just flat out guessed.
THIS IS IMPORTANT: After each section, I would check the answers and take notes on all the questions I was unsure of or got wrong. Do not waste the practice questions. Make sure you recognize the mistake you made or the fact you didn't know, so that you know what to do if you encounter it on the actual OAT.
I also did Chad's Physics Quizzes. These were almost all calculation based, and much more difficult than the actual OAT. I ended up not doing all of them, they were just overkill.
Doing the Destroyer took me up until the day before my exam. I wasn't as organized as I would have liked with the practice tests, but when I did the ADA Practice test, I was in panic-mode and just wanted to see where I was at. I had done the ADA Practice exam on Thursday, part of the Princeton Review one on Saturday, and the free Kaplan one on Sunday. Here were my scores:
BIO/G-C/O-C/RC/PHYS/QR/TS/AA
1. ADA: 390/370/340/400/370/400/-/380
2. PRR: 380/370/370/390/-/-/-/-
3. KAP: 380/370/330/370/350/390/360/370
Test Day
Night Before
Actually I'll start with the night before, since my exam was at 8:30. If anyone else has their exam that early, GO TO BED BEFORE MIDNIGHT. I had to wake up at 6:20 because it takes more than an hour to bus to the test center, so I went to bed around 10:30. I was rolling around and didn't fall asleep until past midnight, but it usually takes me around an hour to fall asleep on a normal night. A few extra hours of studying is not going to be worth a few hours less of sleep that you get. The adrenalin you get from test day can only get you so far, especially when it comes to the RC section.
Check-In
They tell you to get there half an hour early, and I got there around 7:50. 5 other guys were with me waiting outside the testing center, and they were all taking the GRE. They let us in 3 at a time, and you choose a locker to put your stuff in, then go to the desk to sign in and for them to check your ID. I was stressing about this over the weekend because I hadn't put my middle name when I registered, but it was listed on both my ID's. But ADA doesn't care, so it's all good. They get you to dab your thumb on this "inkless" pad and press down on the sign in form. I thought that was really cool LOL. You get 2 sheets of laminate and 2 markers. They scan you with a metal detector, and tell you to turn your pockets insideout. Then they escort you. Provided are headphones you could put on that block out the noise. I was seated next to a fan, so they were really helpful.
1. Tutorial
It was very similar to the one on the free Kaplan Online test, only difference is you can use the calculator with the number pad. Really straightforward and I think kind of unnecessary...they tell you how to use a mouse LOL. There's a bit of a lag with a blank white screen for a couple seconds before you move on to the next section. I had a mini panic attack because I thought the computer had crashed or something.
2. Biology
Like what other people on the forum have said, it really is just a random scatter of questions. I'll let you know now that I don't remember too much from the actual exam...only the questions I had trouble with. For the Bio section, it was the questions regarding Evolution. I thought I had that stuff down, but I guess not, and I had to make 50/50 guesses. I think the Destroyer really helped me in this section. I was consistently getting 8-12 wrong in each 40 question set while doing them, but ended up doing very well on the actual OAT. I STRONGLY recommend going through all the questions.
3. General Chemistry
Know your Gas Laws, Acid base, and be able to do stoichiometric calculations fast. Don't focus so much on the equations, it's more important to understand the concepts. Again, go through all the questions in the Destroyer.
4. Organic Chemistry
I'm not sure what to say for this section in terms of advice. This was the other section I was consistently doing bad on in the Destroyer, and I wasn't able to go through even half the questions. The Destroyer focusses heavily on the reactions, and my O-Chem background just wasn't sufficient. Going in, I had pretty much accepted that I would be scoring 320-340 for O-Chem, and mainly focussed on the other sections to even it out. But on the actual exam, there weren't as many reaction based questions, and a lot of concept-based, which I could do. I have read on other posts that they have had reaction heavy exams, so I guess I lucked out. I finished this section with about 25 minutes to spare, and went over to do the questions I had marked or had left blank. Again, there's a blank white screen when you move on to RC, and had a smaller panic attack this time.
5. Reading Comprehension
I didn't study for this section other than doing the practice exams. Only way to study for this in my opinion is to read a lot, but I'm an avid reader, so I didn't worry too much. When you first get to this section, they give you a full screen view of the article, and you need to click next in order to view the first question. You view one question at a time, and the screen is split with the question on top and the article on the bottom that you can scroll through. My strategy for this section is to read the whole article once first, then go through the questions. There are quite a few where I could answer just based on common knowledge, some that I got from your first read through, and others that I had to look back in the article. Almost all of them were just asking for things the articles said, and a few where you have to make your own interpretation, but they were pretty easy. I finished with about 5 minutes remaining.
6. Break
I was very happy for the break, as I was getting a bit hungry and needed to pee. I went to the washroom, ate a granola bar, had some water, and then went back in with around 5 minutes left in my break. I had lots of room left on my laminate, so I wrote down the Physics formulas and trig identities that I could remember.
7. Physics
At this point, I was already thinking about how I was almost done, and I wasn't concentrating as hard as I should have been. Again, it's more important to know the concepts than the equations. But for Physics, I would try to memorize all the important ones, just because it helps to have them for reference. Especially those questions where it's like: "X is increased by a factor of 2, what is the effect on Y?" This section was harder than I anticipated. There were a few questions I didn't know at all. I didn't study Capacitance at all, and only roughly knew what it was, based on its application to axons. I ended up doing well, but it didn't feel good while doing the questions.
8. Quantitative Reasoning
HARDEST SECTION. Based on the experience I had doing the practice exams and the destroyer, I thought I would have plenty of time. I had been finishing with 10+ minutes to spare each time I practiced, but during the actual OAT, I didn't have enough time and had to randomly click answers for a few questions I had left blank. This section was all a blur to me, and I thought it was harder than the destroyer questions. In the destroyer, there were some questions that were really easy, took 10 seconds to do, and got my confidence up to keep going through. But on the OAT, they were few and far between and I started panicking. Overall score was good, but definitely felt it was harder than what I had seen.
9. DONEEEE
There's a post test survey you do before you get to see your scores. I was very satisfied with the staff there, not as satisfied with the actual testing program. Lots of occasions where I had to click and an answer multiple times, and it was pretty laggy. But when I finished the survey, my results popped up.......
SECTION/SCORE/PERCENTILE
QR/390/98
RC/400/100
BIO/400/100
GC/390/94.3
OC/390/96.6
PHYS/390/98.9
TS/400/100
AA/390/99.9
Needless to say, I was ecstatic, and honestly, surprised. It was beyond what I had hoped for. I stared at the screen in disbelief for a few seconds. I had exceeded my expectations in bio, physics, and certainly ochem.
10. Check-out
You collect your ID, walk out, and check out. Then the person at the desk prints out your unofficial score report (shown in attached file) and you are sent on your way!
Last Thoughts
Just going to re-iterate some things that I had been wondering while I was studying. For study materials, I encourage everyone to use Cracking the OAT to review Physics, Kaplan for everything else, and the Destroyer for practice. In terms of difficulty of the common practice exams, I'd say the ADA is definitely easier than the actual thing, and Kaplan was close to being on par with it. But the Kaplan test I did wasn't full-length, so take that into consideration. For how to start studying...honestly, just pick a section, any section, and start going through the Kaplan book or Cracking the OAT if you choose Physics. Take good notes as you go, emphasize things that are new or fuzzy, and review along the way. Also keep in mind, I am on one or two years removed from learning most of the things covered on the OAT, so they are still relatively fresh in my mind. For those of you who have been away from school or who are done with your degree, do give yourself more time to refresh your memory.
Please feel free to send me a message if you have any questions or need any help! And if you're planning on applying to Waterloo as well, I'd love to go through the experience of applications and whatnot with you, so send me a message! Good luck to all
Hi all!
I just took the OAT today (Aug. 25, 2014), and since this forum has been so helpful for me, I'd like to give back a little by detailing my experience. It might turn out a bit long, so I apologize for the length. I'm not very good at condensing things and I don't want to leave anything out.
My Educational Background
I am from Vancouver and attending UBC. I will be heading into first year Pharmacy this coming September (2014), and it will be my 3rd year in University. Prior to getting into Pharmacy, I was in Microbiology.
As part of my first two years, I have already taken courses that covered most of what was tested on the OAT. I'm happy about getting into Pharmacy, and content with staying there, but I want to give Optometry a shot. I will only be applying to Waterloo, as it's the only school I can apply for before I get my Bachelor's Degree. My grade average so far for Science courses is 84.5%. For those who wish to know my OAT score, it is attached, and also detailed at the end of this post.
Study Materials
Kaplan Big Book, Cracking the OAT, and OAT Destroyer. Also watched the free Biology videos from Chad's Videos, and bought the Physics quizzes since the OAT Destroyer I used didn't have a Physics section.
Study Pattern
I began studying during the first week of July. I began with studying Physics off "Cracking the OAT", and then made a rough plan to get through the other sections in the Kaplan book by the end of July. All I did was look at the length of each section and estimated that I could cover ~30 pages a day. I took notes, and marked topics that I was unfamiliar with or was fuzzy on. At the same time, I was taking a summer course (Physiology). It took up a lot of my time, but it was also good because I ended up just having to skim through the Physiology related sections in the Kaplan book, and gave me more time for other sections.
I was able to stick to my rough schedule and finish going through the Kaplan book by the end of July. The following week I slacked off and didn't do much, but had to start studying for my Physiology final which was Aug. 12. I ended up not doing very well in that course...so I definitely regret slacking off, but it's okay.
After my final I started focussing completely on the OAT. At this point, I had a bit less than 2 weeks left to study. I took a few days to quickly review everything.I went through "Cracking the OAT" again, doing the practice problems for the sections I was fuzzy on, and also watching Chad's Bio Videos to go along with my Bio notes. For the other sections, I just reviewed my notes.
Then, I started on the Destroyer. This book is TOUGH. My first attempt at it was 40 questions from the Bio section, and I almost failed. Similar situation with O-Chem, but Math and G-Chem weren't as bad. I would go through in sets of however many I would see on the OAT. So 40 Q's for Bio, 30 for G-chem, and so on. While doing the question sets, I would circle all the questions that I was unsure of, and put a question mark next to the ones I just flat out guessed.
THIS IS IMPORTANT: After each section, I would check the answers and take notes on all the questions I was unsure of or got wrong. Do not waste the practice questions. Make sure you recognize the mistake you made or the fact you didn't know, so that you know what to do if you encounter it on the actual OAT.
I also did Chad's Physics Quizzes. These were almost all calculation based, and much more difficult than the actual OAT. I ended up not doing all of them, they were just overkill.
Doing the Destroyer took me up until the day before my exam. I wasn't as organized as I would have liked with the practice tests, but when I did the ADA Practice test, I was in panic-mode and just wanted to see where I was at. I had done the ADA Practice exam on Thursday, part of the Princeton Review one on Saturday, and the free Kaplan one on Sunday. Here were my scores:
BIO/G-C/O-C/RC/PHYS/QR/TS/AA
1. ADA: 390/370/340/400/370/400/-/380
2. PRR: 380/370/370/390/-/-/-/-
3. KAP: 380/370/330/370/350/390/360/370
Test Day
Night Before
Actually I'll start with the night before, since my exam was at 8:30. If anyone else has their exam that early, GO TO BED BEFORE MIDNIGHT. I had to wake up at 6:20 because it takes more than an hour to bus to the test center, so I went to bed around 10:30. I was rolling around and didn't fall asleep until past midnight, but it usually takes me around an hour to fall asleep on a normal night. A few extra hours of studying is not going to be worth a few hours less of sleep that you get. The adrenalin you get from test day can only get you so far, especially when it comes to the RC section.
Check-In
They tell you to get there half an hour early, and I got there around 7:50. 5 other guys were with me waiting outside the testing center, and they were all taking the GRE. They let us in 3 at a time, and you choose a locker to put your stuff in, then go to the desk to sign in and for them to check your ID. I was stressing about this over the weekend because I hadn't put my middle name when I registered, but it was listed on both my ID's. But ADA doesn't care, so it's all good. They get you to dab your thumb on this "inkless" pad and press down on the sign in form. I thought that was really cool LOL. You get 2 sheets of laminate and 2 markers. They scan you with a metal detector, and tell you to turn your pockets insideout. Then they escort you. Provided are headphones you could put on that block out the noise. I was seated next to a fan, so they were really helpful.
1. Tutorial
It was very similar to the one on the free Kaplan Online test, only difference is you can use the calculator with the number pad. Really straightforward and I think kind of unnecessary...they tell you how to use a mouse LOL. There's a bit of a lag with a blank white screen for a couple seconds before you move on to the next section. I had a mini panic attack because I thought the computer had crashed or something.
2. Biology
Like what other people on the forum have said, it really is just a random scatter of questions. I'll let you know now that I don't remember too much from the actual exam...only the questions I had trouble with. For the Bio section, it was the questions regarding Evolution. I thought I had that stuff down, but I guess not, and I had to make 50/50 guesses. I think the Destroyer really helped me in this section. I was consistently getting 8-12 wrong in each 40 question set while doing them, but ended up doing very well on the actual OAT. I STRONGLY recommend going through all the questions.
3. General Chemistry
Know your Gas Laws, Acid base, and be able to do stoichiometric calculations fast. Don't focus so much on the equations, it's more important to understand the concepts. Again, go through all the questions in the Destroyer.
4. Organic Chemistry
I'm not sure what to say for this section in terms of advice. This was the other section I was consistently doing bad on in the Destroyer, and I wasn't able to go through even half the questions. The Destroyer focusses heavily on the reactions, and my O-Chem background just wasn't sufficient. Going in, I had pretty much accepted that I would be scoring 320-340 for O-Chem, and mainly focussed on the other sections to even it out. But on the actual exam, there weren't as many reaction based questions, and a lot of concept-based, which I could do. I have read on other posts that they have had reaction heavy exams, so I guess I lucked out. I finished this section with about 25 minutes to spare, and went over to do the questions I had marked or had left blank. Again, there's a blank white screen when you move on to RC, and had a smaller panic attack this time.
5. Reading Comprehension
I didn't study for this section other than doing the practice exams. Only way to study for this in my opinion is to read a lot, but I'm an avid reader, so I didn't worry too much. When you first get to this section, they give you a full screen view of the article, and you need to click next in order to view the first question. You view one question at a time, and the screen is split with the question on top and the article on the bottom that you can scroll through. My strategy for this section is to read the whole article once first, then go through the questions. There are quite a few where I could answer just based on common knowledge, some that I got from your first read through, and others that I had to look back in the article. Almost all of them were just asking for things the articles said, and a few where you have to make your own interpretation, but they were pretty easy. I finished with about 5 minutes remaining.
6. Break
I was very happy for the break, as I was getting a bit hungry and needed to pee. I went to the washroom, ate a granola bar, had some water, and then went back in with around 5 minutes left in my break. I had lots of room left on my laminate, so I wrote down the Physics formulas and trig identities that I could remember.
7. Physics
At this point, I was already thinking about how I was almost done, and I wasn't concentrating as hard as I should have been. Again, it's more important to know the concepts than the equations. But for Physics, I would try to memorize all the important ones, just because it helps to have them for reference. Especially those questions where it's like: "X is increased by a factor of 2, what is the effect on Y?" This section was harder than I anticipated. There were a few questions I didn't know at all. I didn't study Capacitance at all, and only roughly knew what it was, based on its application to axons. I ended up doing well, but it didn't feel good while doing the questions.
8. Quantitative Reasoning
HARDEST SECTION. Based on the experience I had doing the practice exams and the destroyer, I thought I would have plenty of time. I had been finishing with 10+ minutes to spare each time I practiced, but during the actual OAT, I didn't have enough time and had to randomly click answers for a few questions I had left blank. This section was all a blur to me, and I thought it was harder than the destroyer questions. In the destroyer, there were some questions that were really easy, took 10 seconds to do, and got my confidence up to keep going through. But on the OAT, they were few and far between and I started panicking. Overall score was good, but definitely felt it was harder than what I had seen.
9. DONEEEE
There's a post test survey you do before you get to see your scores. I was very satisfied with the staff there, not as satisfied with the actual testing program. Lots of occasions where I had to click and an answer multiple times, and it was pretty laggy. But when I finished the survey, my results popped up.......
SECTION/SCORE/PERCENTILE
QR/390/98
RC/400/100
BIO/400/100
GC/390/94.3
OC/390/96.6
PHYS/390/98.9
TS/400/100
AA/390/99.9
Needless to say, I was ecstatic, and honestly, surprised. It was beyond what I had hoped for. I stared at the screen in disbelief for a few seconds. I had exceeded my expectations in bio, physics, and certainly ochem.
10. Check-out
You collect your ID, walk out, and check out. Then the person at the desk prints out your unofficial score report (shown in attached file) and you are sent on your way!
Last Thoughts
Just going to re-iterate some things that I had been wondering while I was studying. For study materials, I encourage everyone to use Cracking the OAT to review Physics, Kaplan for everything else, and the Destroyer for practice. In terms of difficulty of the common practice exams, I'd say the ADA is definitely easier than the actual thing, and Kaplan was close to being on par with it. But the Kaplan test I did wasn't full-length, so take that into consideration. For how to start studying...honestly, just pick a section, any section, and start going through the Kaplan book or Cracking the OAT if you choose Physics. Take good notes as you go, emphasize things that are new or fuzzy, and review along the way. Also keep in mind, I am on one or two years removed from learning most of the things covered on the OAT, so they are still relatively fresh in my mind. For those of you who have been away from school or who are done with your degree, do give yourself more time to refresh your memory.
Please feel free to send me a message if you have any questions or need any help! And if you're planning on applying to Waterloo as well, I'd love to go through the experience of applications and whatnot with you, so send me a message! Good luck to all
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