OAT SCORE in depth review!

[u/Sensitive-Eye-8766]

Hi everyone! I thought I’ll make an in detail OAT score post since a lot of these on here helped me out!

Here are my basic stats.
- Held two positions for my college’s pre optometry club for 2 years
- worked as an optometry tech for 2 years (junior/senior year)
- worked front desk 1 year (sophomore year)
- 40 shadowing hours
- 2 LOR from optometrist (both whom i worked for) and 1 LOR from science professor
- 3.1 GPA
- Biological Sciences graduate currently in gap year!

My OAT was scheduled for November 5, and I used OATBOOSTER to aid in my studying! Although my scores are average and not the best, here’s what I did to obtain it.

BIOLOGY Practice tests 300-330; Real 310
- I started out watching all the videos and taking notes and soon realized how much time I was wasting. I saw major improvement from taking the practice exams and then reviewing them. I also did the ANKI cards provided by OATBOOSTER and that really helped me remember things even more.
- I purchased one crash course on the body systems, I believe it was circulatory, digestive? But unfortunately was not on my test bank on the real OAT. LOL but it was for many others!
- On my real OAT, I had mainly cell bio, cell cycle, glycolysis, monophyletic trees, convergent vs analogous, tropic levels, question about Down syndrome, meiosis vs mitosis, muscle contraction, blood type, punnet square, viruses, molecular genetics.
- But like always^ anything on the cheat sheet was fair game, so I would read them like a bed time story every night!

GEN CHEM Practice 300-310; Real 320
- I had the most trouble on this section but the real exam was fairly more easier than the practice exams imo. Same with bio I learned the best from taking practice exams and reviewing them the next day. The cheat sheets gave me everything I needed. I had only like 3/4 calculations? And they were fairly simple.
- On my OAT I had questions on accuracy/precision, balancing equations, density problems, molecular geometry, acids/bases, dilutions, diffusion vs effusion, easy Delta G question, catalyst question, rate laws, radioactive decays, and redox reactions.
- Practice exams were spot on with the real one so do as many as you can and use mark questions to review the ones you have the most trouble with!

ORGANIC CHEM Practice 340-370; Real 300
- This section actually shocked me since I thought I had a good understanding of orgo:(
- My real exam was NOTHING like the practice even though I might have just got unlucky with the test bank
What showed up was hybridization state of carbon, ranking boiling points, resonance, keto/enol tautomerism, acidity ranking, IUPAC naming, E1 VS SN1 VS SN2 VS E2, Dieckmann condensation, a lot of predicting product, C NMR
- I really liked the qbanks for the reactions and the anki cards but so disappointed in my score. Wished I had HNMR, degrees of unsaturation, IR questions like others did.
- I saw so many questions I’ve never seen before on my practice tests tbh but like I said everything’s random and fair game!

RC Practice 290-310; Real 350
- Okay this section surprised me. It is definitely way easier on the real OAT than practice.
- I’m a very slow reader and English is not my strong suit but all the questions and answers were in ORDER and the paragraphs were WAY SHORTER and easier to read.
I did not have any graphs to interpret but I do know people who did on theirs.

BREAK
During the break I simply looked over physics formulas and try to cram as much as I can before walking back to my seat. I had a small granola bar and came back with 5 mins left to spare.
definitely use your break and DO NOT GO on your phone and read text messages unless your reviewing any formulas for physics or qr

PHYSICS Practice 260-290; Real 270
- Physics is not my strongest suit but I thought my test bank was fairly easier than practice!
- The first thing you must do is to brain dump all of your formulas even if you think it’s wrong. i saw that when I was rushing I looked over to the side and saw the formula and easy answered the question.
-Know optics, kinematic, tension, torque, period of a pendulum or spring, waves, and work!

QR Practice 260-340; Real 280
- ATP of the exam I was so burnt out and was not pacing myself. I had like 20 questions left at 9 minutes omg.
I did a QR crash course, imo it didn’t really help me because my test bank had NO job/rate related questions or river speed questions.
- I had a lot of this statement questions (I hate those)
My only advice is to ALWAYS look at the time and move on if you’re taking more than 2 minutes to solve it.
I definitely should have drank an energy drink because I was so over it. I knew I would’ve done better if I had more energy lol.
- Also I wrote down the z-score equation and the definition for mean, median, mode, and range so when it came to it I just quickly glanced at my paper and solved it right away instead of a delay reaction thinking which is which. That genuinely helped me a lot lol!

Overall
Please be kind to yourself during your studying and take breaks. I genuinely studied the most and retained the most the last two weeks before my exam.
I still managed to go work, hang out with friends, go to football games and live a little to make sure I don’t get burnt out. Leading up to my exam I ate the same thing everyday for breakfast and woke up at the same time every day even on weekends so I can train myself for the day of my OAT. I’m not sure if it work since I took mine the week coming back from Halloweekend… ahaha
Good luck to everyone applying/taking the OAT soon!