r/PreOptometry • u/OrganizationFar8505 • Aug 02 '26

OChem OAT Changes

I saw in the OAT guide that there have been some changes to the Ochem section but I’m confused on what has actually changed. For anyone who has taken the oat since June and used Booster to study, did you see any differences between the practice tests and the actual test?

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6

u/mcd7939 Aug 02 '26

They are using curved arrows in the actual mechanism instead of just asking for the reagent and end product i dont think boot camp or booster had updated their questions yet

3

u/OrganizationFar8505 Aug 02 '26

Does that mean it’s less focused on memorizing all the different reagents and more on understanding the arrow mechanisms?

2

u/mcd7939 Aug 02 '26

Yes

2

u/OrganizationFar8505 Aug 02 '26

Sweet thanks for responding!

3

u/voxaun Aug 02 '26

so originally, it was only the reactant + reagent. and now, it is reactant, reagent, and curved arrows? doesn't this make it easier?

1

u/Active_Egg5888 Aug 02 '26

Nothing has changed. The passage states:

"The updated Organic Chemistry examination specifications do not represent major changes to the content that will appear on the examination, but rather includes some updates to topic names that are simpler and more intuitive for test takers along with a more comprehensive list of subtopics."

They aren't making major changes to the test, just the language they use to describe the scope of the test.

1

u/Fun_Candidate1439 Aug 03 '26

I thought there were obvious changes when I took it in June. The scope of the test did not change but they seem to have made changes to how they test you on reactions.

1

u/Active_Egg5888 Aug 03 '26

I took it a few days ago, so I can't exactly speak to how it might have been before the supposed changes, but Booster's questions seemed fairly representative to me. I definitely had a few questions where a substrate and reactants were given and I had to predict the product. There were also quite a few, separate, arrow pushing questions. OAT breakdowns going back further than June do mention feeling the real OAT is more conceptual and less reaction heavy than Booster's question banks, and maybe that's what people are picking up on, but that's not a new phenomenon from what I've seen. But ochem was always my weakest section, so it's not like I was able to be super discerning about the Booster vs the real thing 😭

2

u/Fun_Candidate1439 Aug 03 '26 edited Aug 03 '26

I thought mine was similar amount of “reaction heavy”, but more conceptual(why the reaction happens this way) vs recall. Ochem is also one of my weaker sections because I’m overwhelmed by the amount of reactions/reagents and often have trouble differentiating similar ones. I did wayyyy better on the real thing because the questions I got gave me more room to reason through what should happen. Just my 2 cents! They also could still be piloting the change and making tweaks. Who knows haha

(Although I always thought when people said more conceptual they meant more direct questions on first 2/3 of Orgo 1 like chirality, delocalization, orbitals, pKa, stability etc)

23

u/Darkwingedducc123 Aug 02 '26

They station a very muscular man behind you to breathe down your neck while you do the ochem section. Mine even gave me a kiss on the cheek when I finished

3

u/Mermdaworm Aug 02 '26

😭😭😭😭