I used SDN religiously in preparation for my OAT, so I told myself that if I could pull off a decent score, I'd share some of what I learned from the experience!
To study:
I used primarily Chads videos for GenChem, OChem, physics (only did quizzes for O-chem)
I used Kaplan only for Bio and QR (didn't do many practice Q's)
I bought destroyer, but didn't end up making it through nearly as many practice questions as I intended to.
~50 OC, 25 GC, 50 PHY
I made a plan for July and August, to spend 2 weeks on O-Chem and 2 weeks on physics. I have always been really weak in physics, and I hadn't taken Physics II yet so there was lots of new concepts I needed to learn. I had taken O-Chem, and I did good in the class but we were allowed to use cheat sheets for the tests so I hadn't truly learned as much content as I needed to for the purpose of this test- especially reactions. I knew zero anything about any kind of reaction in organic chemistry coming into this test.
I planned to spend the first couple weeks in August reviewing GC, BIO, QR, and then spend the last couple weeks before my test (Sept 7th) doing full reviews and practice tests. I did really well in chem courses, and I felt like I had taken a million bio courses, so I wasn't extremely worried on that end of things. I hadn't done math in a few years, but that just needed some brushing up on.
I failed miserably on my plan, but that always happens to me in my studying, so I was expecting it lol. I spent all of July on O-chem (very casually until the last week or so), then began physics + everything else at the beginning of August.
In the beginning with O-chem, I was watching chads videos and doing the quizzes, and they were awesome!! Highly recommend. But then I started to run out of time haha. I resorted to just watching his videos and taking thorough notes, and making sure I understood the concepts!! I know it takes a lot more energy, but if you work understand the concepts, it's sooo much easier than memorizing- there's WAY too much information in every subject to just memorize everything. Fast forward a couple weeks and it's Friday Sept 1, and I was JUST finishing my QR review... so I left myself with just 1 week to do practice questions and practice tests... and I decided to go camping for a couple days cause it was the long weekend lol! Would not necessarily recommend, but I also learned along the way balance is so important to avoid burning out!
Through August I studied probably ~4 or 5 hours, for 5, sometimes 6 days out of the week. July was similar, but it was distracted studying. I was putting in 12 hour study days the 5 days leading up to my exam just because of missed time from the camping trip.
4 days before my exam is when I did the first Kaplan test... it turned out weird, somehow my RC section got skipped, and it confused me so I ended up skipping the break too, and so I went straight thru. I scored 260 AA 270 TS, and I started to panic lol hence the 12 hour study days. So that day and the next, I went through the test THOROUGHLY and did a few more practice questions out of the destroyer where I could. That brings us to one day before the exam, I did my second Kaplan and scored a little better at 310 AA 300 TS, but I was still worried because I felt like I guess on a loooot of questions (mostly in physics and QR). I studied off of that test for the rest of the day, and spent a lot of time going over O-Chem reactions and formulas for physics/gen chem.
That night I was so stressed out, I was reeeeally regretting not doing more practice questions. I got 4 hours of sleep. I'm a breakfast person and I had zero appetite to eat anything. My test was at 8 AM, and I was fully panicking on my way there lol.
Test Day
Got to the testing centre, did security check in just how everyone else describes it, got situated and started to do my test. I think I could literally hear my heart beating, I can not emphasize how nervous I was for this test.
BIO: just how everyone else says it, so random. Lots of everything. Evolution, embryology, genetics, physiology, hormones, anatomy... just gotta study whatever you can!
GC: Stoichiometry, balancing, rate laws, periodic trends, ideal gas law, acid/base, molecular geometry, thermodynamics, literally the most straightforward GenChem concepts... nothing like I saw in Kaplan!
OC: Lots of reactions! Thank goodness I spent so much time learning them haha it paid off. I never learned intermediates, only the reagents and how to predict their products. Chads videos & reaction guide were AWESOME. I had a few easy questions on properties, ranking acids, 1 on H NMR, a couple on chirality, hybridization. No questions on nomenclature that I can recall.
RC: First passage was so boring and brutal, I was behind on time by the second passage. It was more interesting so I made a couple quick guesses to catch up. Third passage I was still really short on time, was just trying to be fast. I normally am a really strong reader, so I am going to chalk this up to that 4 hours of sleep.
I was still SOOOO nervous by this point, even though everything felt fine so far. I had the 30 minute break, we were allowed to do whatever, but I didn't use my phone- I was still way too nervous to even talk to anyone and explain how things were going. I just went outside for some fresh air to wake me up, forced myself to eat some yogurt and a granola bar cause I still had no appetite from the nerves. Reviewed physics formulas and went back in.
PH: Sooo I felt like nothing I studied (except kinematics and energy, other Physics 1 stuff) showed up lol I definitely did a lot of guessing in this section and it showed in my score. I have never been great with physics so I just kind of made the best educated guesses I could and didn't let it discourage me. So many mirror/lens/electricity, lol some questions I didn't even know what concepts they were testing.
QR: The math was never too challenging, but I am so bad with the time constraints. I ran out of time during my Kaplan tests, and I was short on time in this section too. Made a couple guesses in this section when I felt like I needed to catch up, but it wasn't too terrible for someone who only spent a couple days reviewing math after a few years of never using it. I haven't taken a stats/probability course yet. Also I saw 1 geometry question, no trig.
Kap1/Kap2/OAT
BIO: 300/310/ 320
GC: 280/280/ 390
OC: 280/310/ 370
RC: 200/360/ 370
PH: 250/290/ 280
QR: 250/280/ 320
TS 270/300/ 340
AA 260/310/ 340
Physics brought my score way down from where it could have been, but what can ya do. Ultimately I'm pretty happy with my score, and I hope with my pretty decent GPA (3.68) I'll be getting into the schools I'm shooting for!
Advice: Everyone says it, and so much easier said than done, but make a study plan and stick to it!!! And make sure that practice questions are made a PRIORITY. I wish I would have done that for physics. Also balance! I went out on weekends, still hung out with my friends, still worked part-time. Don't let this test consume your life, cause it's genuinely not that bad. Haha I did not need to be nearly as nervous as I was. I thought about rescheduling when I got that first Kaplan score 3 days before the test, but I am SO glad I didn't. Just push through and do your best. You will never feel 100% prepared- I sure did not! But work hard, and it will pay off.
To study:
I used primarily Chads videos for GenChem, OChem, physics (only did quizzes for O-chem)
I used Kaplan only for Bio and QR (didn't do many practice Q's)
I bought destroyer, but didn't end up making it through nearly as many practice questions as I intended to.
~50 OC, 25 GC, 50 PHY
I made a plan for July and August, to spend 2 weeks on O-Chem and 2 weeks on physics. I have always been really weak in physics, and I hadn't taken Physics II yet so there was lots of new concepts I needed to learn. I had taken O-Chem, and I did good in the class but we were allowed to use cheat sheets for the tests so I hadn't truly learned as much content as I needed to for the purpose of this test- especially reactions. I knew zero anything about any kind of reaction in organic chemistry coming into this test.
I planned to spend the first couple weeks in August reviewing GC, BIO, QR, and then spend the last couple weeks before my test (Sept 7th) doing full reviews and practice tests. I did really well in chem courses, and I felt like I had taken a million bio courses, so I wasn't extremely worried on that end of things. I hadn't done math in a few years, but that just needed some brushing up on.
I failed miserably on my plan, but that always happens to me in my studying, so I was expecting it lol. I spent all of July on O-chem (very casually until the last week or so), then began physics + everything else at the beginning of August.
In the beginning with O-chem, I was watching chads videos and doing the quizzes, and they were awesome!! Highly recommend. But then I started to run out of time haha. I resorted to just watching his videos and taking thorough notes, and making sure I understood the concepts!! I know it takes a lot more energy, but if you work understand the concepts, it's sooo much easier than memorizing- there's WAY too much information in every subject to just memorize everything. Fast forward a couple weeks and it's Friday Sept 1, and I was JUST finishing my QR review... so I left myself with just 1 week to do practice questions and practice tests... and I decided to go camping for a couple days cause it was the long weekend lol! Would not necessarily recommend, but I also learned along the way balance is so important to avoid burning out!
Through August I studied probably ~4 or 5 hours, for 5, sometimes 6 days out of the week. July was similar, but it was distracted studying. I was putting in 12 hour study days the 5 days leading up to my exam just because of missed time from the camping trip.
4 days before my exam is when I did the first Kaplan test... it turned out weird, somehow my RC section got skipped, and it confused me so I ended up skipping the break too, and so I went straight thru. I scored 260 AA 270 TS, and I started to panic lol hence the 12 hour study days. So that day and the next, I went through the test THOROUGHLY and did a few more practice questions out of the destroyer where I could. That brings us to one day before the exam, I did my second Kaplan and scored a little better at 310 AA 300 TS, but I was still worried because I felt like I guess on a loooot of questions (mostly in physics and QR). I studied off of that test for the rest of the day, and spent a lot of time going over O-Chem reactions and formulas for physics/gen chem.
That night I was so stressed out, I was reeeeally regretting not doing more practice questions. I got 4 hours of sleep. I'm a breakfast person and I had zero appetite to eat anything. My test was at 8 AM, and I was fully panicking on my way there lol.
Test Day
Got to the testing centre, did security check in just how everyone else describes it, got situated and started to do my test. I think I could literally hear my heart beating, I can not emphasize how nervous I was for this test.
BIO: just how everyone else says it, so random. Lots of everything. Evolution, embryology, genetics, physiology, hormones, anatomy... just gotta study whatever you can!
GC: Stoichiometry, balancing, rate laws, periodic trends, ideal gas law, acid/base, molecular geometry, thermodynamics, literally the most straightforward GenChem concepts... nothing like I saw in Kaplan!
OC: Lots of reactions! Thank goodness I spent so much time learning them haha it paid off. I never learned intermediates, only the reagents and how to predict their products. Chads videos & reaction guide were AWESOME. I had a few easy questions on properties, ranking acids, 1 on H NMR, a couple on chirality, hybridization. No questions on nomenclature that I can recall.
RC: First passage was so boring and brutal, I was behind on time by the second passage. It was more interesting so I made a couple quick guesses to catch up. Third passage I was still really short on time, was just trying to be fast. I normally am a really strong reader, so I am going to chalk this up to that 4 hours of sleep.
I was still SOOOO nervous by this point, even though everything felt fine so far. I had the 30 minute break, we were allowed to do whatever, but I didn't use my phone- I was still way too nervous to even talk to anyone and explain how things were going. I just went outside for some fresh air to wake me up, forced myself to eat some yogurt and a granola bar cause I still had no appetite from the nerves. Reviewed physics formulas and went back in.
PH: Sooo I felt like nothing I studied (except kinematics and energy, other Physics 1 stuff) showed up lol I definitely did a lot of guessing in this section and it showed in my score. I have never been great with physics so I just kind of made the best educated guesses I could and didn't let it discourage me. So many mirror/lens/electricity, lol some questions I didn't even know what concepts they were testing.
QR: The math was never too challenging, but I am so bad with the time constraints. I ran out of time during my Kaplan tests, and I was short on time in this section too. Made a couple guesses in this section when I felt like I needed to catch up, but it wasn't too terrible for someone who only spent a couple days reviewing math after a few years of never using it. I haven't taken a stats/probability course yet. Also I saw 1 geometry question, no trig.
Kap1/Kap2/OAT
BIO: 300/310/ 320
GC: 280/280/ 390
OC: 280/310/ 370
RC: 200/360/ 370
PH: 250/290/ 280
QR: 250/280/ 320
TS 270/300/ 340
AA 260/310/ 340
Physics brought my score way down from where it could have been, but what can ya do. Ultimately I'm pretty happy with my score, and I hope with my pretty decent GPA (3.68) I'll be getting into the schools I'm shooting for!
Advice: Everyone says it, and so much easier said than done, but make a study plan and stick to it!!! And make sure that practice questions are made a PRIORITY. I wish I would have done that for physics. Also balance! I went out on weekends, still hung out with my friends, still worked part-time. Don't let this test consume your life, cause it's genuinely not that bad. Haha I did not need to be nearly as nervous as I was. I thought about rescheduling when I got that first Kaplan score 3 days before the test, but I am SO glad I didn't. Just push through and do your best. You will never feel 100% prepared- I sure did not! But work hard, and it will pay off.
that will be very helpful for me when studying! 
