OAT test day experience

[winter25]

I read the last 5 years' worth of posts about specific test day experiences, so I thought I'd pay it forward!!

Bio/GC/OC/RC/Physics/QR
Kaplan Free 310/340/320/290/270/360
Achiever 1 320/340/350/290/250/380
Kaplan 1 340/300/290/380/310/360
Achiever 2 340/320/330/--/320/--
Kaplan 2 320/330/330/370/310/330
ADA practice 370/390/360/340/380/390
OAT 390/400/400/350/390/370 TS 400/AA 380

I'm ecstatic with my scores!! based on how my practice tests were going, I assumed I'd at least get a 330, but I was really aiming for a 350 overall. So, when I saw my scores pop up on the screen, I couldn't stop grinning (I probably looked crazy)!!

Study Materials
I started studying in May. I was taking a summer course at the time, so I probably studied for the OAT ~3-4 hrs a day in May. My course ended at the end of the month, so I studied a bit more in June. That's when I began taking practice tests & really hammering down the material.

Biology - big Kaplan blue book. I read through each chapter twice. The first time I made online flashcards of each chapter. In hindsight, this was a bit of a waste of time as I never really used the online flashcards I made. The second time I read through the book was about 1.5 weeks before my exam. This time I made handmade flashcards for everything I wasn't familiar with. I also went through all of the questions after each chapter.

Gen Chem, Org Chem, Physics, & QR - Chad's videos. Watched each video, took notes, & did the practice quizzes. Also made flashcards for each section with things I wasn't 100% understanding about a week or two before my test. I reviewed these cards every few days.

Reading Comprehension - I only practiced this through the practice tests I completed. This was actually the section I was most worried about because I hadn't been scoring too hot on my practice tests.

Test Day
I arrived about 30 minutes early & they allowed me to start right away which was nice. Everyone was very kind and helpful at Prometric, so overall a great experience!

Bio - This section had a bunch of stuff I wasn't expecting. I did my best to guess, but I honestly thought I was doing worse than on my practice tests. Didn't have too many plant or taxonomy questions so I was happy about that.

Gen Chem - It honestly seemed so straightforward....like too straightforward. Guess I just knew what I was doing??? haha who woulda thought

Org Chem - I definitely guessed on a few questions for this section so I have no idea how I scored a 400. Guess I'm a good guesser?

Reading - I was running out of time during the second passage so I marked a bunch of questions which I had to come back to. This section always annoys me because although I'm a fast reader, I'm usually only fast on things that genuinely interest me. The passages I had weren't too awful, though, and a majority of the questions were taken straight out of the passage. In fact, the last passage was actually interesting!

Then, I took my 15 minute break... left the room, used the bathroom, ate a granola bar, drank some water and came back into the room. Still had 10 minutes left through so I definitely coulda taken my time a bit more lol

Physics - A lot of conceptual questions. I felt like they were trying to trick you with answer choices for quite a few of these. I marked maybe 3 questions that I had absolutely no idea how to do. Definitely easier than any practice test though!!

QR - honestly so surprised I scored a 370 here. Although I'd been scoring well on practice tests, on the actual OAT, I was reeeeally running out of time & didn't know how to do at least 5 or 6 of the questions. I think using a dry erase board also threw me off a bit because you can't erase & I had to ask for a new board in the middle of my section.

after I completed my survey, I didn't look at the screen for probably 10 seconds....

Overall I'm soo happy!! If anyone has any questions feel free to ask

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[optowiz]

Hey, I am really happy on your progress and results! Way to go!
I guess my only question is about formulas and constants. Do you need to memorize constants esp. for physics? Thanks!

 

[winter25]

I had no constants on my exam! In fact, I believe some of the constants were even on the periodic table that was provided. The only think you should definitely memorize is stuff like the speed of light or the index of refraction of air.

 

[kilegna]

Hey!
When did you take your exam?

 

[winter25]

yesterday!

 

[optowiz]

Hey, I was doing my Kaplan online practice exam and they provided an on screen calculator for the physics section. On the real exam the on screen calculator is only for quan? Correct?

 

[winter25]

correct. I just ignored the calculator on the Kaplan physics sections

 

[kilegna]

So you studied for a total of 2.5 months?

 

[winter25]

yep

 

[catsomgcats]

Nice job!! Where do you want to apply?

 

[winter25]

a few different schools in the northeast -- hopefully I'll be accepted to SUNY so I can pay in-state tuition

 

[jstyt7]

great scores congrats!!!!
I have been doing basically what you are doing! except for bio I use cliffnotes, however, my achiever scores are much much lower than yours (highest 310 lowest 210)
Do you think its test strategies ? studying style?? I am pushing my test from 18 july to 18 aug but really don't know what to do between now and then to improve.
need your suggestion :S

 

[winter25]

I wouldn't worry too much about the achiever scores you are getting. even just looking at mine, you can see that my scores are much higher on the actual OAT/ADA practice exam than any of the achiever scores. Also, I think physics & reading comprehension were waaaayyyy too difficult on the achiever exams. I think the achiever is great for practicing pacing & timing, though, so it's definitely a valuable tool. It also scared me a bit when I was getting lower scores than I wanted (which probably made me study more). Make sure that you review each practice test you do afterwards thoroughly. This is probably the thing that helped me improve most by showing me topics that I needed to focus on.

If you're using Chad's videos, I'd also recommend just going through random quizzes. I would use the "random" feature for a section I wanted more practice on (~20-30 questions at a time). This definitely helped by refreshing what I had took notes on before. Also, for facts/mechanisms/reactions/formulas you forget, make flashcards. Review them every few days & soon enough they'll become second nature.

Good luck on your exam!! It'll definitely go better than your Achiever tests. Make sure to take the practice ADA exam because that one was closest to my real one! For reference, I took that 2 days before my actual exam.

 

[happigirl12321]

i am really really worried about the reading comprehension section! i feel like its a lot of luck regarding what the passages are about!
you said your passages werent too bad (and even interesting?), do you mind elaborating on the topics? like what kind of passages did you get?
i have done some practice where its basic english describing trees and was very simple, but then others are filled with 20 different latin names viruses and everything can get so confusing to read and follow along
also do you recommend mapping the passage or search/destroy ?

 

[winter25]

I don't want to get into specifics about what my passages were about (and honestly don't really even remember at this point), but they were all science-related. If you want practice, I would recommend reading through some scientific articles -- that way you can practice moving quickly through topics you may not understand. Don't forget, you don't need to memorize passages, just know a general layout where things are so you can quickly search for answers.

I mapped the passage. I would read quickly throughout (highlighting as I was going along) and write a few words on my note board after each paragraph with the paragraph number. I really liked that you can highlight on the actual exam because that allowed me to find things much faster than I had been finding things on practice. I don't like the search/destroy method because it takes me much longer to search through a passage I haven't read than to just read it in the first place. Also, I'm sure there are a few questions with answer choices that will trick you if you haven't read the entire passage.

The hardest part about this section is the timing. Once you've found an answer choice, move on. Don't look through each answer choice elaborately or you'll run out of time. If you're unsure, mark it and come back at the end.

 

[od123]

Your scores are awesome, congrats! For the physics sections, do you have to memorize all the formulas? This is what I'm most worried about.

 

[winter25]

Yes, you should memorize the formulas. I created flashcards for all of them and just cycled through them every few days. They'll stick if you do that!