Took the OAT without studying...

[adenosine]

...

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[mthomas2]

Ever wonder what somebody's score would be on the OAT if they didn't study a bit? I always wondered that, so I decided not to study before I took my test to see just how much I actually learned in undergrad. No study materials, help guides, books, nothing.
Some background info on me: I am a senior majoring in a biology-related field at a 4 year university, my overall gpa is around 3.1, and my science gpa is around 3.0.

Here are the scores I got:
Quantitative Reasoning 340
Reading Comp 340
Biology 310
General Chem 290
Organic Chem 290
Physics 230 (yikes!)
Total Science 270
Academic Average 300

So for all you blokes out there stressing about the test, don't worry about it. It wasn't that bad. If you studied, you should do just fine with no problems.

Thanks for sharing.... I've often wondered how one would do.

 

[a1bui]

You could've taken the practice ASCO test to see how you'd do, heh. Thanks for taking one for the team though.

 

[JMU07]

holy crap, that's a ton of money to spend if you know you aren't going to use those scores to apply! interesting to know what kind of scores one might get without studying though

 

[StplrDncr]

I didn't study before I took the OAT. I took it more as a practice to see what the atmosphere was like. I also had a super packed semester and wanted to take the last written one, something about a computer test for the reading section scares me but it all worked out good.

I agree about not worrying about it. If you have a good background in the courses and have taken them semi-recently, you should be fine.

 

[4Eyes]

I also took the OAT without studying. The only preparation I did was the practice test the day before to see how timing worked out. I feel like I had a good background except for in physics (I only had one semester down, and my professor was a nice guy, but so obsessed with astronomy that we didn't get to a lot of the really useful stuff).

I got a 320 AA, with my lowest subscore being 300. Looking back, I feel like I was totally stupid for doing that, and I wouldn't recommend it. My thinking was that I'd take it once to get a feel for it, then retake it later and try to really kick butt. I ended up not retaking it because I had a really good GPA and it wasn't all that necessary. But really, unless you are just too bogged down with stuff and/or you're just feeling really confident, I'd recommend giving it your best shot from the start.

(Not slamming the OP here...just my humble opinion for other readers )

 

[StplrDncr]

I do agree with ^. If you don't feel confident or don't already understand the material it might not be a good idea.

To me, I think not studying made me less stressed because I knew everyone there really studied so I kind of had the attitude like I had nothing to lose and could always study and then retake it. Probably not a good attitude/idea in hindsight but for my situation and life at that point it worked out.

 

[diams]

Hi there,
I had a question about your reading comp .You said you didn't study for the OAT but did alright for most of the sections.However, i studied and did fine on all thesections except reading comp.So i was wandering if you would tell me what strategy did you use for the reading comp section and when did you took the OAT (was it computerized and after the July 6th changes)I am very concerned about my reading comp score...please help me by telling me how you attckaed the passages and the questions.

 

[adenosine]

.

 

[Cal_OD]

First off, you're a fool for taking without studying. What are you trying to prove? If you wanted to waste $185 go buy yourself some cloth or get a hooker, better yet send it my way so I can pay my rent.

 

[aam0050]

I didn't find reading too difficult either, except for getting tricked by some answers because of reading over them too quickly. Beware of answers where most of the sentence is correct except for one word, if you're like me you'll likely read what you want to read and get it wrong! I took a friend's advice and went straight to the questions, read the first question, then started reading the passage. Once I found the answer, I'd go to the next question, then think back about if I'd already read the answer or not, and if not then I kept reading. I got through all the questions with a couple minutes to review (sounds like a lot but really isn't enough to review much.) Good luck everyone!

 

[princesspinknes]

that's exactly what i did too. for the first passage i attempted to read all the questions first but realized what a waste of time that was, and quickly adapted to this method. its much better and makes more sense for the way the test is displayed