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- Mar 1, 2005
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Hello,
I am in a unique and rather upsetting situation, and would greatly appreciate advice from anyone who has something to say about it. I'll keep this post as brief as I can, while including all relevant details.
I am a current applicant for optometry programs for Fall 2005, and took the OAT this past February. I am a graduate from Emory University and have a 4.0 in the science pre-requisites. I have spent the past year working as an optometric technician, and am positive that optometry is what I want to practice.
I took a Kaplan prep course and studied very hard for the exam beginning in November, 2004. In the weeks prior to taking the exam, I took several full length practice exams offered by Kaplan, Scholarware, and finally, the sample exam offered by the OAT administration. On these exams, I consistently scored academic averages above 360. Two days before the actual OAT, I took the sample exam found in the OAT Registration Booklet, and scored an academic average of 390.
On test day, I felt that my performance had reached it's peak, and all that I had worked so hard for was going to pay off. When I walked out of the exam, I felt that I had gotten at least a 380, and the thought crossed my mind that I might have gotten a 400. I am not trying to sound arrogant; I just studied extremely hard for this test, and was anticipating a good score in the mail this week.
Here is my score report that was sent to me, and all six schools that I applied to:
AA 220
QR 230
RC 200
Phy 220
Bio 210
GC 200
Org 210
Percentile : 1-1.7
I am devastated by this. There is not even a remote possibility that this is what I earned on the test. I know the material thoroughly, and am a strong test taker. It is also unlikely that this score is a result of my answers being shifted on the answer sheet, as several sections are on different answer sheets. In fact, I probably could have gotten a better score if I "Christmas tree'd" the exam. There is no doubt that I would have gotten the same RC and GC score above if I just put my name on the test!
I found this out at 4 PM Friday, and immediately contacted the OAT office in Chicago. They seemed fairly nice, but also acted very confident that they had not made a mistake. I remember one of the three individuals I spoke with said "you seem like a smart person, however, in my 8 years that I have worked here, I have never seen a score correction after a rescore was conducted."
I am in a tough, and undeserved position here, as the classes are close to full, and even if this does get resolved, vital time has been wasted, and irreversible damage has been done.
Does anyone know of something like this happening to someone they know, or have any reccomendations as to what avenue I should pursue here? Is legal action warranted, or am I overreacting? I feel like flying up to Chicago right now, and confronting these people about it, but that would probably be a waste of time. I have, or rather, "had" an interview at SUNY at the end of the month, and was hoping to be invited to a few others. I don't think that's going to happen now. In fact, I am going to stand out at the mailbox tonight to graciously anticipate the arrival of my rejection letters.....
I would greatly appreciate any advice/suggestions...Thanks.
I am in a unique and rather upsetting situation, and would greatly appreciate advice from anyone who has something to say about it. I'll keep this post as brief as I can, while including all relevant details.
I am a current applicant for optometry programs for Fall 2005, and took the OAT this past February. I am a graduate from Emory University and have a 4.0 in the science pre-requisites. I have spent the past year working as an optometric technician, and am positive that optometry is what I want to practice.
I took a Kaplan prep course and studied very hard for the exam beginning in November, 2004. In the weeks prior to taking the exam, I took several full length practice exams offered by Kaplan, Scholarware, and finally, the sample exam offered by the OAT administration. On these exams, I consistently scored academic averages above 360. Two days before the actual OAT, I took the sample exam found in the OAT Registration Booklet, and scored an academic average of 390.
On test day, I felt that my performance had reached it's peak, and all that I had worked so hard for was going to pay off. When I walked out of the exam, I felt that I had gotten at least a 380, and the thought crossed my mind that I might have gotten a 400. I am not trying to sound arrogant; I just studied extremely hard for this test, and was anticipating a good score in the mail this week.
Here is my score report that was sent to me, and all six schools that I applied to:
AA 220
QR 230
RC 200
Phy 220
Bio 210
GC 200
Org 210
Percentile : 1-1.7
I am devastated by this. There is not even a remote possibility that this is what I earned on the test. I know the material thoroughly, and am a strong test taker. It is also unlikely that this score is a result of my answers being shifted on the answer sheet, as several sections are on different answer sheets. In fact, I probably could have gotten a better score if I "Christmas tree'd" the exam. There is no doubt that I would have gotten the same RC and GC score above if I just put my name on the test!
I found this out at 4 PM Friday, and immediately contacted the OAT office in Chicago. They seemed fairly nice, but also acted very confident that they had not made a mistake. I remember one of the three individuals I spoke with said "you seem like a smart person, however, in my 8 years that I have worked here, I have never seen a score correction after a rescore was conducted."
I am in a tough, and undeserved position here, as the classes are close to full, and even if this does get resolved, vital time has been wasted, and irreversible damage has been done.
Does anyone know of something like this happening to someone they know, or have any reccomendations as to what avenue I should pursue here? Is legal action warranted, or am I overreacting? I feel like flying up to Chicago right now, and confronting these people about it, but that would probably be a waste of time. I have, or rather, "had" an interview at SUNY at the end of the month, and was hoping to be invited to a few others. I don't think that's going to happen now. In fact, I am going to stand out at the mailbox tonight to graciously anticipate the arrival of my rejection letters.....
I would greatly appreciate any advice/suggestions...Thanks.
congratulations...happy to hear that worked out well for you. good luck in the interview process
