Even though my scores aren't as high as some of the people on this forum but I thought it'd be nice to share. This is my second time taking that OAT. The first time I got 320AA/TS. Anyways, here goes.
QR 340
GC 340
BIO 360
OC 370
PHY 320
RC - an embarrassing, disgusting 260!
TS 360
AA 330
My thoughts:
RC: I can't believe I got a 260! That brought my AA down a lot! I thought the passages weren't that bad. The passages were interesting to read actually. My method was to read each passage carefully and jot down key points. I thought this method worked well but I guess I was wrong big time. On all 3 Achiever tests I was getting 350s so I expected scores between 300-330 but I was not even close. It doesn't help that I really had to go pee at the start of the second passage. That's what I get for drinking so much juice in the morning. Someone suggested that you shouldn't drink coffee before the exam so I took that person's suggestion. I'm a coffee drink btw.
BIO: I just did a lot of practice problems from Achiever, Kaplan tests, just whatever I can get my hands on. I type out all the ones that I got wrong and review them whenever I can. The questions weren't tricky, they were straight forward. I had two problems that showed me a picture. I had no idea. I just guessed. I had a strong foundation in biology so that helped a lot.
GC: There weren't that many calculation problems. Know your conjugate acids/bases, periodic trends. I can't remember the rest.
OC: There weren't that many reaction problems. I was hoping to get more of that. Make sure you know your reagents. SN1/SN2/E1/E2.
PHY: I was really happy to get this score. Physics has always been my weakest area. I just don't get physics. On all of my practice exams I was getting 260s and on a good day 270. The real test asks really basic questions. There were a handful of kinematic questions but they weren't too difficult. There were about 2 optic questions. I memorized about 95% of physic formulas. I don't know if that helped or not.
Math: I didn't have time to study much for math but then again even if I had time I wouldn't have scored any higher. I made sure to do all the easy questions first then saved the wordy word problems for later. For the ones I didn't know I just click B, marked, then moved on. There were more computation problems than word problems and those are very doable. Memorize your sine, cos stuff b/c there were about 4 questions on those. I memorized most of the conversations and also memorized the unit circle (there's a pattern so it wasn't that hard to memorize).
I studied for about 2 months off and on. Some days I would study for 5-6 hours, some days 2 hrs, some days zero. Most weekends I get very little done because there is always something to do on the weekends for me. Towards the end I didn't crank up the studying hours or anything. I just took things a little light at the end b/c I was exhausted. Materials I used include Kaplan subject tests, Kaplan small book that includes 2 sample test, Achiever, Princeton MCAT. I also bought Examkrackers verbal reasoning and 1001 Physics questions. It was a waste of money b/c I didn't have time to use them. I did do a couple of problems on those and thought they weren't geared towards OAT.
Right when I finished the QR sections, my heart was racing like no other. My stomach was turning and my body was shaking (partially b/c I was really hungry). I had to cover my eyes b/c I can't stand to see my scores. When I peeped, the first thing I saw was a 260 so I was about to faint. But I'm glad my other scores didn't hover around 260s.
If you have any questions, please ask. Good luck to those of you who are taking the OAT soon. I can finally breathe (well sort of, RC still sticks in my mind like a sore thumb).
QR 340
GC 340
BIO 360
OC 370
PHY 320
RC - an embarrassing, disgusting 260!
TS 360
AA 330
My thoughts:
RC: I can't believe I got a 260! That brought my AA down a lot! I thought the passages weren't that bad. The passages were interesting to read actually. My method was to read each passage carefully and jot down key points. I thought this method worked well but I guess I was wrong big time. On all 3 Achiever tests I was getting 350s so I expected scores between 300-330 but I was not even close
. It doesn't help that I really had to go pee at the start of the second passage. That's what I get for drinking so much juice in the morning. Someone suggested that you shouldn't drink coffee before the exam so I took that person's suggestion. I'm a coffee drink btw. BIO: I just did a lot of practice problems from Achiever, Kaplan tests, just whatever I can get my hands on. I type out all the ones that I got wrong and review them whenever I can. The questions weren't tricky, they were straight forward. I had two problems that showed me a picture. I had no idea. I just guessed. I had a strong foundation in biology so that helped a lot.
GC: There weren't that many calculation problems. Know your conjugate acids/bases, periodic trends. I can't remember the rest.
OC: There weren't that many reaction problems. I was hoping to get more of that. Make sure you know your reagents. SN1/SN2/E1/E2.
PHY: I was really happy to get this score. Physics has always been my weakest area. I just don't get physics. On all of my practice exams I was getting 260s and on a good day 270. The real test asks really basic questions. There were a handful of kinematic questions but they weren't too difficult. There were about 2 optic questions. I memorized about 95% of physic formulas. I don't know if that helped or not.
Math: I didn't have time to study much for math but then again even if I had time I wouldn't have scored any higher. I made sure to do all the easy questions first then saved the wordy word problems for later. For the ones I didn't know I just click B, marked, then moved on. There were more computation problems than word problems and those are very doable. Memorize your sine, cos stuff b/c there were about 4 questions on those. I memorized most of the conversations and also memorized the unit circle (there's a pattern so it wasn't that hard to memorize).
I studied for about 2 months off and on. Some days I would study for 5-6 hours, some days 2 hrs, some days zero. Most weekends I get very little done because there is always something to do on the weekends for me. Towards the end I didn't crank up the studying hours or anything. I just took things a little light at the end b/c I was exhausted. Materials I used include Kaplan subject tests, Kaplan small book that includes 2 sample test, Achiever, Princeton MCAT. I also bought Examkrackers verbal reasoning and 1001 Physics questions. It was a waste of money b/c I didn't have time to use them. I did do a couple of problems on those and thought they weren't geared towards OAT.
Right when I finished the QR sections, my heart was racing like no other. My stomach was turning and my body was shaking (partially b/c I was really hungry). I had to cover my eyes b/c I can't stand to see my scores. When I peeped, the first thing I saw was a 260 so I was about to faint. But I'm glad my other scores didn't hover around 260s.
If you have any questions, please ask. Good luck to those of you who are taking the OAT soon. I can finally breathe (well sort of, RC still sticks in my mind like a sore thumb).
