WRITING THE OAT IN ON SEPTEMBER 7TH

[ronzroyce97]

Hi i'm writing the OAT on September 7th, so far i've only studied 3 chapters of the QR section. I'm having a very hard time studying for this exam because all throughout my undergrad i've been used to cramming for exams two or three nights before which I know won't work for this exam. For those who have taken the OAT and have similar study habits how did you do it? Also Ill be applying to NECO, ICO, Indiana, and Salus so i'm aiming for like 300-320, ive heard that you can get 20 wrong on each section and score a 300? is that true? I know thats not very high but I think my 3.7 GPA and 4 years of working as an optometric assistant and volunteering and being executive for clubs and other organizations would make up for a AA of 300. any feedback is greatly appreciated!!

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[opto1995]

Seriously in the same boat. I am a professional crammer in school, though I have been doing my best to try and stay on top of it "studying" since the beginning of July, but not hardcore whatsoever until the last week. Chads videos are saving my life! Just sit down, focus on taking good notes, and I have been having to leave my phone in another room. Definitely worth it. I'm writing sept 7th too Good luck!!

 

[ronzroyce97]

Seriously in the same boat. I am a professional crammer in school, though I have been doing my best to try and stay on top of it "studying" since the beginning of July, but not hardcore whatsoever until the last week. Chads videos are saving my life! Just sit down, focus on taking good notes, and I have been having to leave my phone in another room. Definitely worth it. I'm writing sept 7th too Good luck!!

AHHH SOMEONE WHO KNOWS MY PAIN! GOOD LUCK TO YOU TOO!!!

 

[JustInYurEyez]

Hi i'm writing the OAT on September 7th, so far i've only studied 3 chapters of the QR section. I'm having a very hard time studying for this exam because all throughout my undergrad i've been used to cramming for exams two or three nights before which I know won't work for this exam. For those who have taken the OAT and have similar study habits how did you do it? Also Ill be applying to NECO, ICO, Indiana, and Salus so i'm aiming for like 300-320, ive heard that you can get 20 wrong on each section and score a 300? is that true? I know thats not very high but I think my 3.7 GPA and 4 years of working as an optometric assistant and volunteering and being executive for clubs and other organizations would make up for a AA of 300. any feedback is greatly appreciated!!

Seriously in the same boat. I am a professional crammer in school, though I have been doing my best to try and stay on top of it "studying" since the beginning of July, but not hardcore whatsoever until the last week. Chads videos are saving my life! Just sit down, focus on taking good notes, and I have been having to leave my phone in another room. Definitely worth it. I'm writing sept 7th too Good luck!!

Hi friends, I am also taking the OAT on 09/07/18! LOL

I'm feeling really good about the Biology section because I just recently finished retaking a biology class I did poorly in my freshman year of undergrad, and I got an A in the class. It's like the two separate general biology courses you would need to take for prereqs but packed all into one class, doesn't go into much detail but still A LOT of content was presented. Most people are saying the biology section was hit or miss depending on the types of questions being asked like the irrelevant stuff we didn't really bother to study like ecology, biomes, etc. When I'm doing practice questions those are coming very easily. I'm just using OAT Destroyer to study for the anatomy/phys stuff that I'm kinda rusty on since it's been two years since I've taken that.

I am also using Chad's Videos (coursesaver) for chem, ochem and physics. There are times where Chad is going a little "too" fast or not going into enough detail as I'd like so I just supplement with the Kaplan review notes. I have yet to take any practice exams but I'm gonna gonna take one tomorrow just to see how I'd do.. but best of luck to you guys!

 

[deleted936320]

Any updates guys?

 

[JustInYurEyez]

Any updates guys?

On 08/17/18 I took my first Kaplan Full Length Practice Test:
280TS / 270AA
BIO 310/ GC 280/ OC 230/ RC 310/ PHY 270/ QR 240

Took a Kaplan Reading Section Practice and scored a 390

08/22/18 Took Kaplan Full Length Practice 2:
270TS/ 280AA (They switched from my last scores :c)
BIO 320/ GC 300/ OC 230/ RC 340/ PHY 240/ QR 260

A little happier that I got more sections at 300 among all the sections, but OC, QR, and PHY are killing me... I'm using chad's videos and using Kaplan's Qbank to practice as much as I can.. Gonna take another practice exam in a few days and eventually I'll do the ADA test to see where I stand.

 

[opto1995]

Hi friends, I am also taking the OAT on 09/07/18! LOL

I'm feeling really good about the Biology section because I just recently finished retaking a biology class I did poorly in my freshman year of undergrad, and I got an A in the class. It's like the two separate general biology courses you would need to take for prereqs but packed all into one class, doesn't go into much detail but still A LOT of content was presented. Most people are saying the biology section was hit or miss depending on the types of questions being asked like the irrelevant stuff we didn't really bother to study like ecology, biomes, etc. When I'm doing practice questions those are coming very easily. I'm just using OAT Destroyer to study for the anatomy/phys stuff that I'm kinda rusty on since it's been two years since I've taken that.

I am also using Chad's Videos (coursesaver) for chem, ochem and physics. There are times where Chad is going a little "too" fast or not going into enough detail as I'd like so I just supplement with the Kaplan review notes. I have yet to take any practice exams but I'm gonna gonna take one tomorrow just to see how I'd do.. but best of luck to you guys!

What are you guys using to study for QR?

 

[JustInYurEyez]

What are you guys using to study for QR?

Honestly I'm still trying to find a good source to practice QR, but I've tried doing course saver QR quizzes and Chad makes it very easy to understand, but when I do QR practice questions from Kaplan, I get so lost.. I also have Math Destroyer, but I haven't really tried to sit through a try working out every problem, but everyone has said Math Destroyer was very helpful.

 

[rsod07]

What are you guys using to study for QR?

Out of all of the resources that I used, the OAT achiever was the most helpful for the QR section. The questions were representative of what was on the OAT but they were a tad bit harder.

 

[opto1995]

Honestly I'm still trying to find a good source to practice QR, but I've tried doing course saver QR quizzes and Chad makes it very easy to understand, but when I do QR practice questions from Kaplan, I get so lost.. I also have Math Destroyer, but I haven't really tried to sit through a try working out every problem, but everyone has said Math Destroyer was very helpful.

Hmmm I also have the OAT destroyer with the math in it, (i'm guessing that's the same thing? haha) but mines a 2016 version... so I have been told no more trig and it's also missing quantitative comparison. So I am just trying to figure out where I can study that stuff from.

Gonna go through Kaplan too, pretty much all I got. I was watching a good DAT review for QR on youtube also, and skipped the trig stuff.

Also can anyone confirm 100% that there's no trig??

 

[JustInYurEyez]

Hmmm I also have the OAT destroyer with the math in it, (i'm guessing that's the same thing? haha) but mines a 2016 version... so I have been told no more trig and it's also missing quantitative comparison. So I am just trying to figure out where I can study that stuff from.

Gonna go through Kaplan too, pretty much all I got. I was watching a good DAT review for QR on youtube also, and skipped the trig stuff.

Also can anyone confirm 100% that there's no trig??

My friend took his OAT a month ago, and he said he like 3 questions on geometry/trig! I would study it just to be safe!

 

[Jejera]

What are you guys using to study for QR?

I HIGHLY recommend going through the math destroyer -- I kept this section off until the very end of studying, so I maybe got in about 30-40 questions from the destroyer. Doing even 30 questions helped me a lot, and it did not take me much time....maybe 3 hours max.

Also, there is a whole section that the kaplan books does not cover in the OAT called "Quantitative Comparison" questions which are found in the GRE. It is really worth your time to learn how to do these problems. Again, it doesn't take long but you will see it makes a big difference in terms of scoring on the OAT because it is worth quite a lot. I didnt know about this section until a few days before the exam, but just getting exposure to what these problems look like really helped me ease an anxiety during the exam. Last thing you want is to freak out during the exam because you have never seen these kinds of problems. Also, if you want some great practice for this style of questions, got to the DAT bootcamp page, and take a free practice exam (i think you just need to make an account, no payment) for this section. It really helped, and I think the DAT bootcamp was probably the most representative source for OAT questions.

 

[JustInYurEyez]

I HIGHLY recommend going through the math destroyer -- I kept this section off until the very end of studying, so I maybe got in about 30-40 questions from the destroyer. Doing even 30 questions helped me a lot, and it did not take me much time....maybe 3 hours max.

Also, there is a whole section that the kaplan books does not cover in the OAT called "Quantitative Comparison" questions which are found in the GRE. It is really worth your time to learn how to do these problems. Again, it doesn't take long but you will see it makes a big difference in terms of scoring on the OAT because it is worth quite a lot. I didnt know about this section until a few days before the exam, but just getting exposure to what these problems look like really helped me ease an anxiety during the exam. Last thing you want is to freak out during the exam because you have never seen these kinds of problems. Also, if you want some great practice for this style of questions, got to the DAT bootcamp page, and take a free practice exam (i think you just need to make an account, no payment) for this section. It really helped, and I think the DAT bootcamp was probably the most representative source for OAT questions.

When you are taking the Math destroyer tests are you doing them timed or just doing them without referring to notes and then going through the solutions after taking the exam? Everyone has been saying Math destroyer has been really helpful for QR.. Actually for Kaplan, if you're enrolled in the online self-paced course, they have like three online workshops for quantitative comparison, and the strategies are very helpful and simple to follow. I feel like my QR scores from Kaplan have remained stagnant at 260 every practice exam.. so I am hoping to make up for easy points by doing this.

 

[ronzroyce97]

I'm about more than halfway through all my studying I ended up bumping my exam to September 17th so I could have the last week to practice and review. I wrote the first Kaplan practice without any preparation and scored: 270 AA, 300 BIO, 310 RC, 250 GC, 260 QR, 230 OC, 240 PHYS, TS 250. Again I know these are horrible scores but I also had zero preparation. Im feeling a lot more confident about each subject in general and am gonna do the practice exams after I've actually gotten a grasp of the material. I've been using Chad's videos for everything except Biology, ive been using kaplan and feralis notes for biology.

 

[JustInYurEyez]

Took Kap Full Length 3 the other day and I’m freaking out, 5 days till D-day

BIO/ GC/ OC/ RC/ PHY/ QR
340/ 250/ 270/ 340/ 220/ 260

AA: 280
TS: 260

Honestly, I did poorly in GC cus a lot of the questions were just things I had reviewed a long time ago that I just blanked out on. Physics is making question life LOL. QR just isn’t moving up or down in any of my other practice exams. I’m gonna take the ADA exam today to see what I get on that.. At this point idk what do cus I can’t even push out my date until October which is way too late for me considering where the application cycle is at right now..

Any advice as to what I should be primarily focusing on? I feel fine when I do the quizzes from Chad’s Videos and course saver but I feel like they are “too” straightfoward and it makes me question whether or not it is compariable to the actual OAT. I feel like learning off of chad’s videos and quizzes doesn’t really help improve my Kaplan scores..

 

[deleted936320]

Took Kap Full Length 3 the other day and I’m freaking out, 5 days till D-day

BIO/ GC/ OC/ RC/ PHY/ QR
340/ 250/ 270/ 340/ 220/ 260

AA: 280
TS: 260

Honestly, I did poorly in GC cus a lot of the questions were just things I had reviewed a long time ago that I just blanked out on. Physics is making question life LOL. QR just isn’t moving up or down in any of my other practice exams. I’m gonna take the ADA exam today to see what I get on that.. At this point idk what do cus I can’t even push out my date until October which is way too late for me considering where the application cycle is at right now..

Any advice as to what I should be primarily focusing on? I feel fine when I do the quizzes from Chad’s Videos and course saver but I feel like they are “too” straightfoward and it makes me question whether or not it is compariable to the actual OAT. I feel like learning off of chad’s videos and quizzes doesn’t really help improve my Kaplan scores..

How did you do on the ADA practice?

 

[JustInYurEyez]

How did you do on the ADA practice?

Haven't taken it yet, I am probably gonna do the free ADA tonight and then buy the $100 ADA practice one tomorrow.

 

[opto1995]

Haven't taken it yet, I am probably gonna do the free ADA tonight and then buy the $100 ADA practice one tomorrow.

Is the free ADA full length??

 

[JustInYurEyez]

How did you do on the ADA practice?

So last night I took the free ADA practice test, but I skipped RC and QR (mostly because I was mentally dead) so here are were my scores based off of just the TS scoring sections:

BIO/ GC/ OC/ PHY
360/ 280/ 310/ 280

TS: 310 (I think)

Then I just finished the paid ADA practice a few moments ago and literally some of the questions were identical to the free practice and that applied to all of the sections. Although there were still a couple of different questions that were on there and concepts that weren't on the free ADA exam. RC only had 25 questions so I adjusted the score conversion chart accordingly..

BIO/ GC/ OC/ RC/ PHY/ QR
380/ 340/ 380/ 360/ 330/ 340

TS: 360
AA: 360

I don't feel very confident in my scores just because of the fact that I was able to just simply recall the questions from the other exam which contributed more to increasing my scores.. A lot of people also mentioned how the actual OAT is just a step up in difficulty compared to the ADA questions. But definitely much easier than Kaplan questions!

Is the free ADA full length??

No it is not, the RC section only has 15 questions and you kind of have to just time yourself rather than it being timed by a computer.

 

[Jejera]

When you are taking the Math destroyer tests are you doing them timed or just doing them without referring to notes and then going through the solutions after taking the exam? Everyone has been saying Math destroyer has been really helpful for QR.. Actually for Kaplan, if you're enrolled in the online self-paced course, they have like three online workshops for quantitative comparison, and the strategies are very helpful and simple to follow. I feel like my QR scores from Kaplan have remained stagnant at 260 every practice exam.. so I am hoping to make up for easy points by doing this.

I studied this section in a weird way, that might not work for everyone. I am one of those people who cant bear sitting down and attempting a bunch of problems, then reviewing answers. I always attempt a problem, look at solution...repeat. So basically, when I was doing this section, I picked a random problem, attempted it, looked at solution in book, and figured out why I got it wrong. Was it because I needed an equation and did not use one? was it a math error? was it a simplifying error? I kept trying to figure out exactly why I got it wrong, then I would find a question in the book that looked the same as the question I just attempted. Then, I try that question. Most of the time, I got it right on the second problem. Now on a flashcard, or sheet of paper, I would write down exactly what was that "missing puzzle piece" that helped me answer the second question correctly.
Also, can I just say that in general don't freak out. Honestly, I had pretty low scores on the Kaplan exams I took, and would only improve like 10 points after sitting 2 weeks drilling myself with problems. It felt like the torture was never going to end, and I felt like I was gonna get out of there with like a 250 or something. But on the day of the exam, go in and accept that you did everything you could in your power to do well. And thats exactly what you are going to do. You will do well! People freak out a lot, and even though I felt like I skipped and didnt understand so much material the weekend before the exam, I just accepted that I tried my best, and worst case scenario if I do bad, I will retake it. Don't put so much pressure on yourself.
If there is one take away from this post, just know that you will do BETTER on the real OAT than any of the practice exams you have taken. Even if its by 10 points, you will do better!

 

[ronzroyce97]

free ADA practice test,

just wondering where do i find the free ada exam?

 

[deleted936320]

just wondering where do i find the free ada exam?

oat_sample_test.pdf

 

[ronzroyce97]

update:

Wrote the free ADA today I haven't studied any of the material in depth this was simply after relearning it all.

310 RC
310 BIO
320 QR
350 GC
270 PHYS
330 OC
315 AA
315 TS

I have exactly a week so I'm going to dedicate one day to each subject and do a thorough review.

 

[deleted936320]

update:

Wrote the free ADA today I haven't studied any of the material in depth this was simply after relearning it all.

310 RC
310 BIO
320 QR
350 GC
270 PHYS
330 OC
315 AA
315 TS

I have exactly a week so I'm going to dedicate one day to each subject and do a thorough review.

define "simply after relearning it all" and then "thorough review" please lol

 

[ronzroyce97]

define "simply after relearning it all" and then "thorough review" please lol

by relearning I meant, literally just taking down notes not doing any studying or practice and taking the exam, and my thorough I mean going through my notes reading them carefully and doing practice problems

 

[Optician2OD]

Ada much easier than actual OAT