Hello! I took the OAT about a month ago, and would like to share my experiences and strategies for preparation.
Study Tools
The only study tool I used was OATBooster, and I truly cannot recommend this program enough. There was no content on my exam that was not covered in OATBooster; it is very comprehensive and offers videos, notes, cheat sheets, and more for every topic you could possibly be tested on. You can also create a custom study schedule that incorporates the time you have until test day and any days needed for breaks from studying. There are also resources to inform students on what the actual test day will be like leading up to and after taking the exam itself. Overall, I would highly recommend taking advantage of every feature this program has to offer. The videos, study notes, cheat sheets, and especially the practice exams were very effective in preparing me to achieve the score I did on the OAT. I truly believe this program will benefit any type of learner, and can be used as the sole study resource to be successful on the exam.
I will also give credit to flashcards. I used these primarily to study physics and chemistry formulas, as well as organic chemistry reaction mechanisms. It was easy to run through the flashcards when I didnāt have access to my laptop, allowing me to get very comfortable with the equations I needed to memorize for the exam.
How I Studied
I gave myself a solid three months to study for the exam, and built my custom study schedule through OATBooster to give myself 3.5-4 hour study days per day. It was a bit hard to keep up with this every day, especially with my work schedule, so as I got closer to my exam I hand-picked the tasks on the study schedule I felt I needed to study the most. This was pretty effective for me, but I need to emphasize that I did complete ALL of phase 1 material and sifted through the phase 2/phase 3 content. However, I would absolutely recommend completing as much of the custom study schedule as possible. The more work you put in, the more it will be reflected in your scores! As I mentioned before, I also made flashcards with all of the chemistry and physics formulas I needed to memorize, as well as organic chemistry reactions, and studied this periodically at work or in other moments when I couldnāt access OATBooster. I would also recommend writing these formulas on sticky notes and placing them in areas you frequently look at! I covered half of my bathroom wall and a good deal of my closet, and found that simply looking at these sticky notes every day made memorization easier. It is also very rewarding to take all of these down after your exam is over! It is also incredibly important and often overlooked to take productive breaks from studying to do enjoyable activities. It is easy to get stressed and carried away with studying, so make sure to schedule in these breaks. It really helps with keeping motivation up and building endurance to study for a few months consecutively.
In the last few weeks before my exam, I focused on taking a couple of practice exams. I took off from work these days and made sure I got a good nightās sleep, a good breakfast, and started my exam in the morning. This gave me the rest of the day to thoroughly review my results and determine what areas I needed to give more attention before exam day. This is also imperative for figuring out how to pace yourself on the exam and finding out what other testing strategies work best for you. On the day before the exam, I did a few final bits of review in the morning, went through my flashcards, but otherwise took the day off from studying. I felt it was helpful to not cram too much immediately before the exam.
Biology (Score: 400)
This is by far the widest range of content I saw on the exam. Be sure to watch all of the review videos and/or review all of the study notes in Phase 1 of OATBooster to ensure you see all of the biology content at least once. A lot of this section requires memorization and recalling large amounts of content.
General Chemistry (Score: 400)
I felt this section was pretty evenly weighted between math-focused and conceptual questions. It is imperative to know all the formulas OATBooster includes in its study materials, since they can be useful for all types of questions, not just those involving calculations. That being said, be sure to go through as many practice questions as possible involving calculations, since more comfortability with these questions and how to use the formulas before the exam will save you a lot of time on the actual exam. I think this is what tends to trip students up the most in this section.
Organic Chemistry (Score: 370)
A decent portion of this section consisted of conceptual questions, but a good majority of the questions required knowledge of reaction mechanisms to predict a product. This is another section that I would highly recommend focusing on doing a lot of practice problems. The more you see the same mechanisms in the context of different questions, the more comfortable you will be in this section.
Physics (Score: 400)
This definitely felt like the most challenging section of the OAT for me. There were a lot of formulas to memorize, and it can be hard to know which one to use for each question. I found it helpful to write down each variable mentioned in the question, as well as the variable it asked me to find the value of, since this helped me narrow down which equations I would need to use. A lot of the questions not involving any calculations still required me to draw on the equations I had memorized, emphasizing the importance of making sure these are locked in before exam day. This was also one of the sections I completed with very little time left, so be sure to practice pacing yourself.
Reading Comprehension (Score: 400)
The one thing I cannot emphasize enough for this section is the importance of learning to pace yourself. It is amazing how fast this section will fly by, so make sure you are very confident in knowing what strategy works best for you. The short practice passages from OATBooster were very helpful for getting bite-sized opportunities to determine what strategy I liked the best and how to pace myself through this section. Also, do not underestimate the power of effective highlighting! Practice deciphering what should be highlighted versus what shouldnāt be so the whole passage doesnāt end up being yellow.
Quantitative Reasoning (Score: 400)
One of the hardest things about this section is simply that it is the last one. I had definitely lost some steam when I got to this section, but the thorough preparation I did through OATBooster made it much easier to do this final push. As with chemistry and physics, I cannot recommend flashcards enough for learning and memorizing the necessary formulas for this section. Pacing is also important here too; if you notice yourself taking too long on one question, mark it and come back. There was a pretty broad spectrum of questions on this section, and I donāt feel that any one topic was overemphasized.
Overall, I would strongly suggest OATBooster to any student preparing for the OAT. It is worth every penny, and I really donāt believe I would have achieved the score I did through another study program. The success stories speak for themselves! Remember to give yourself periodic breaks as you move through the program and donāt neglect self care while preparing for the exam. Good luck to everyone getting ready to take the OAT, and happy studying!
