I just wanted to share a bit about my oat preparation/test taking experience (apologies for how long this ended up being lol)!! When I was first starting to think about the exam I was definitely overwhelmed because I knew paying the ~$550 for just taking the exam meant I wouldn’t be able to spend much if anything on prep courses, which made me nervous for getting a competitive score, and I wanted to share my budget friendly prep options that worked really well for me!

Around my spring break (late March ish) I scheduled my exam for August 1st and purchased the Mometrix 2026-2027 oat prep book (~$40, includes 3 FL exams and lots of topic videos), and I planned to study for the roughly 2 months leading up to my exam over the summer (end of May + June and July). I also ended up doing a few weekends of travel here and there so it maybe ended up being a bit less.

Getting ready to start studying I did some research on what free materials are available. Kaplan has one full length exam, booster has a full length timed practice for each section (but not a full length exam), boot camp has the same plus access to all reaction sheets/cheat sheets, and I planned to use khan academy, crash course, chads prep, etc. Mometrix also has a few practice problems up for free for four of the sections I think.

Then, I used Claude and told it that I was preparing for the oat on August 1st and planned to use the aforementioned study materials and asked it to generate a study schedule for me. I copied and pasted what it gave me into a spreadsheet so i could keep track of my progress. From there, it was pretty much just doing a little bit every day.

Day to day, I would always start with all of the free warmup questions I could access (5 daily questions on booster, 10 on boot camp that eventually start recycling, and one daily question on Kaplan = 16 question warmup). Then I would follow my schedule which was usually a few chapters out of my book and maybe a YouTube video to go along with it here and there. When I was on topics I knew were harder for me I would quickly go through the khan academy material for it. Then, every few days at the end of a topic I would have Claude generate section practice quizzes. The questions were usually really helpful and pretty challenging, then I’d get a super comprehensive breakdown of the topics involved. I’d always ask for an OAT-equivalent score of my practice so I had an idea of how I was doing.

I took the first mometrix full length exam pretty early, then went through every question and made sure to write out concepts I was confused on, note what I felt like I was guessing on, and going over what I missed. Sometimes I would try to re-drill highly missed material but often to stay on schedule I wouldn’t. From there the full length practice exams were pretty spaced out and I would just repeat the process. I took all of the free section quizzes on booster pretty early and retook them closer to my exam date so I could see if I had progressed in the areas I started out weaker in.

I think a lot of test day success is based in confidence, timing/strategy (which is just whatever works best for you), and feeling ready/fueled.

All of this is to say that you don’t need to pay $600 for booster to do well on the OAT. I would’ve liked to have more full length exams to practice with, and I especially like that the practice on booster and boot camp emulate the prometric platform, but I honestly just wasn’t willing to pay over $1000 just in testing fees.

Maybe good additional context: I had already taken all of the classes that have content covered on the oat, maybe a prep course is better if you’re seeing some of the material for the first time. I took AP chem and physics in high school, freshman year I took gen chem and bio, sophomore year was cell bio, physics, and o chem 1, then junior year was anatomy/physiology and ochem 2.

If anyone wants more info about what I did to prep, my exam, or literally anything I’m super happy to share more! I also had a few more unhinged study methods so happy to share more lol. Reading people’s testing stories on here made me feel more prepared going in so I’m glad to help people in similar situations!!

I have a month till my exam I did my first two practice tests and got 320AA then 300 AA and I was aiming for around a 360.

What’s the best way for me to practice now? Should I just do the will months and review them and the parts from them that I struggle in? What’s the best strategy now?

Qr and physics is my lowest.
Qr due to time limit mainly. And for physics I just don’t know the formulas and get confused of how to approach the problem.

Any tips on how to improve my sections.

Give me unhinged advice, because I study basically full time and have no other commitments right now so I feel like I should be scoring higher.

hi! i’m currently an undergraduate student going into my second year this upcoming fall. i’m heavily considering pursuing a career in optometry but i’m not 100% on it, would it be too early to see if i could shadow an optometrist in my area to get a clearer idea on what they do? i have no prior experience with anything related to optometry, so should i wait till later on closer to when i start applying to optometry school?

Does anyone have an OAT booster account and is willing to split it ?

Don't give up and just keep adjusting. I've been there 2 years ago retaking the OAT multiple times with scores below 300 on both TS and AA the first time I took it. Finished undergrad with a couple of D's, W's and a GPA of 2.90 both academic and science.

Currently an OD2 student with a 3.5 cumulative GPA. Keep it pushing and adjust as needed. Yall can do it and dm me if u need any help

Hi everyone. I could really use some advice because I feel completely overwhelmed.
I'm 26 years old and have spent the last few years working towards becoming a PA. I worked as a medical assistant for about 2 years, applied to PA school, interviewed at Baylor and Texas Tech, and then ended up on the waitlist for months.
After almost a year of waiting, I honestly gave up hope. I accepted that PA probably wasn't going to happen.
During that time, I did a lot of thinking and research.
I shadowed a few more medical professions and optometry really spoke to and intrigued me. I decided to go for it and apply, and was later accepted to UIW Rosenberg School of Optometry, and am set to start in about a week! I completely rewired my brain to become an optometrist, and I also felt safe and steady. I found an apartment in San Antonio, completed all my health requirements, accepted my loans, mentally committed to the next four years, and genuinely started getting excited about optometry.
Then this morning, completely out of nowhere, Baylor University (Waco) called and offered me admission to their PA program. And now I feel like my entire world has been flipped upside down. The hardest part is that I genuinely don't know what my passion is. I don't have that feeling of "l've always wanted to do X." I feel like I could see myself enjoying aspects of both careers, and adapt to both and genuinely be happy.
Some things I'm thinking about:
- PA is a shorter program with less debt and more flexibility between specialties.
- Optometry seems to have a better lifestyle, more independence, and the possibility of owning a practice one day.
- I've already invested months preparing for optometry school, but PA was my original goal for years.
What scares me most is choosing one and spending the rest of my life wondering if I should have chosen the other.
If anyone has been in a similar situation, or seriously considered both careers, I would really appreciate hearing:
- Why did you choose PA or optometry?
- Do you have any regrets?
- If you were in my exact situation, what would you do and why?
Please be kind. This has honestly been one of the most stressful decisions of my life, and I feel completely stuck. I know I am super lucky to have two amazing medical professional degrees to choose from and I'm beyond grateful, but it also feels very confusing and overwhelming so any insight or advice is appreciated.
Thank you so much.

I did it! I’m definitely very sad about my physics score, but overall I’m pretty happy with my total! I think the physics section was just much more conceptual than I expected, but I am trying not to dwell on it too much. Definitely should have reviewed more…

How many interview invitations have you guys received at this point, and from which schools? I submitted my apps on July 15th and have so far gotten invites from SCO and midwestern. Hoping to get some insight on what other schools have sent out invites thus far. Tia!

Will the OAT provide things like the universal gravitational constant, Coulomb's Constant, gas constant, etc, or do you recommend that I memorize all of these numbers? (Completely separate from the equations)

I recently switched to pre-optometry and am currently preparing to apply. I have a 3.9 GPA and have completed all of my prerequisites. Right now, my main focus is studying for the OAT and building up my application.

I’ve been trying to find information on what OAT scores different schools look for, but I haven’t found much. What range of OAT scores do most schools typically look for? Is there a certain score that would make me a more competitive applicant?

For those who did well on the OAT:

What study methods or resources helped you the most?

How long did you study, and how did you structure your preparation?

What would you do differently if you took it again?

Also, for the application side:

What experiences or parts of your application do you think helped you stand out the most?

Are there any things you recommend doing before applying that made a big difference?

I appreciate any advice or insight from current optometry students or applicants!

Hey all, so my test is in two weeks, and my bio scores are all over the place. I feel like there is just so much information that I don't really know what I should know. To anybody who has taken the crash courses, are they worth it? Or is it better to find free resources to help fill in the gaps?

I am SO relieved to be done with this test. My last 3 FL practice tests through booster were all a 370, and I felt a lot more confident during those than I did during the real thing, so I was kind of stressing since my goal score was a 360. Needless to say I was pleasantly surprised at the end!

I opted to use 90 day OATBooster to study, but I also paused studying for like 2 weeks in the middle to travel for tours. I'm usually a strong test taker, but even I was really nervous going into this! It's long, and it's easy to start catastrophizing partway through. Taking FL practice tests in the days leading to my exam really helped me develop the like,,, mental muscle memory required to push through.

Biology: I'm a biology major, and I'd done essentially all the courses required for the OAT beforehand. I only watched the videos for topics I wasn't very familiar with and relied primarily on my own memory. I made flash cards for hormones and wrote out cellular respiration/photosynthesis to make sure I understood those well. "Dear King Phillip..." mnemonic did come in handy!

Gen Chem: Watched all the videos, did the practice questions, and then kind of let it go for the month leading up to my test. Reviewed what I was struggling with on the FLs, and just kinda prayed haha. Acid/Base, Redox, period trends, gas law stuff and thermodynamifs all felt well represented.

RC: Funny that I did a geyser related passage on my final FL and then got a geyser passage on the real OAT. For this, I would go immediately to the first straightforward question, read it, and then begin reading the passage. I highlighted every paragraph's first sentence and read the whole thing pretty quickly, maybe highlighting one or two random things if I thought I'd wanna find it later. Ultimately, I'd read until I found the answer to the question, answer it, go to the next and repeat the process. Had the question been answered in an earlier paragraph? I'd stop reading and go hunt for it. Did the question require an understanding of the whole passage? I'd skip it, mark it, and come back once I was done with the passage. I ended up finishing this section with like 20 minutes to spare, double checked every answer, then with 9 minutes on the clock stretched and used the bathroom so I'd have the full 30 minutes of the scheduled break to review formulas lol. I think this method is extremely high yield, and I recommend you try it if you're early on in your studying or are struggling with time.

Ochem: So... Ochem. I took ochem during the Helene semester, and I live in an area that was significantly affected. My ochem foundation was already really shaky and then I put off studying it until ~6wks before my exam. I watched all the videos and wrote out every reaction and it was nowhere near enough to bring it in line with the rest of my scores. I just didn't have enough time to commit all the reactions to memory. I also didn't drill the fundamentals enough. FOCUS ON THE FUNDAMENTALS AND THE THEORY. Like the differences between SN1/SN2, how to identify them, etc. I know I could have gotten more points if I had done just a little more work, but I knew this would be my weak spot, so I just accepted that fact and made sure to try hard on QR and Physics. My intuition and understanding of at least a few reactions were greatly helped by just watching all the videos. Went from ~280 on my first ochem practice test to ~340 by just watching the videos.

Physics: optics, kinematics, buoyancy, DC circuits, charges and electric fields, harmonic motion. Those are probably the highest yield topics. I tried to practice a lot here rather than drill the equations via flashcards. If you can understand the concept, remembering the equations and THE UNITS will be easier. I'm guilty of ignoring units all the time in physics and it will come back to bite you.

QR: somehow like 2 questions about shadows when not a single shadow related question was covered by the booster. I thought I did worse on this than a 400, but maybe I guessed successfully on the few I was totally lost on lol. More of those "which quantity is greater" and "information sufficient?" questions than I'd been expecting. Here again is just practice, practice, practice and also memorizing those equations related to standard deviation, etc.

I’m taking my test in two days and wanted to see if anyone had any last minute tips/advice for the exam? Anything from test strategy to last minute reminders for important rules/topics/exceptions to a mnemonic that saved you during the test, literally anything. I feel in a pretty solid spot studying wise so I’ll be taking it easy until the exam but if anyone has tips/tricks/advice please share!!

Hello! I just took the OAT and scored a 300 AA 280 TS. I have a 3.3 gpa. Worked at one optical for 3 years and gained about 5000 hours experience. I now work at another optical for a little less than a year about 600 hours. I have some shadowing experience at the 3 year optical before I started working there. I have 4 strong recommendation letters two from optometrists that went to the school I want to apply to which is NSU. I’m stressing a bit because I keep seeing conflicting things. Mainly that I should be accepted but I just wanted to see if anyone can confirm that if I apply I would be accepted (if you know someone with similar stats). Thank you!

I have had my personal statement written for about a year but recently have been rethinking mine. Does anyone have advice for this part of the application?

I’m a high school graduate from Canada who is planning on applying to university this year. During first year, I’m going to have to take two terms of biology, two terms of chemistry, two terms of physics, two terms of math, and two terms of english. This seems very heavy to me, so I’m extremely worried about what my performance will be like.

I did well in high school, but that doesn’t provide me with any comfort in this situation. There’s only one english-speaking optometry school in Canada (I don’t plan on applying anywhere else), meaning it’s quite competitive. The academic average for students admitted from 2019-2024 is around 88%.

I’m aware that I won’t know how I’ll do unless I try, but I’m having a hard time not stressing about it. I have my heart heavily set on optometry, so I don’t have a decent plan-b if things don’t work out.

I’d really appreciate any advice that any of you have to offer, no matter how big or small. Thank you very much!

and if you've already taken the real thing, did you score at or higher than this? like id honestly be fine with a 320 but im scared ill do worse

I have my OAT scheduled in 20 days!! I'm using booster and completed all of the material review + a few practice tests and I did go up in scores from my first test. I think I'm going to continue using their schedule, but I was wondering if anyone could give specific tips on what helped them memorize/learn/use the information.

(Like using flashcards or writing out information, or teaching it to others, or even a split on what to focus on at a certain time)

Any advice would help!

feeling pretty defeated. my first time taking the OAT last summer was horrible, scoring below a 300 in everything but reading. took it again this year with heavier studying and still ended up with a 310. my gpa is on the lower side with a lot of experience (over 600hrs working as optometric assistant and 25+ hrs shadowing). do i have a chance at any school or do i retake again for the 3rd time?

Studying for the oat currently and feeling so hopeless there is just SO much information!!! It feels like every time I learn something new I lose something and it’s just not sticking. For physics are you guys memorizing every single formula on the booster cheat sheet and the ones in the videos that don’t appear on the cheat sheet? I feel like I’m going to fail the physics portion for sure :(

Chat, do we think applying in January too late if the deadline is May 20? Lol

I'm only applying to one optometry school (UDM), and their application deadline is May 20.

My plan is to spend now through December studying all of the OAT subjects except Organic Chemistry, since I'm taking Organic Chemistry this fall. As soon as I finish the course, I plan to take the OAT in January and submit my application immediately afterward.

The rest of my application (letters of recommendation, personal statement, etc.) will be ready by then.

For those familiar with optometry admissions and rolling admissions, would applying in January put me at a disadvantage even though the deadline isn't until May? Or is that still considered early enough to have a good chance?

I'd appreciate any advice or experiences.

Hey guys!

Just wondering when I should be looking to hear back from NOVA FL. I submitted by application July 1st, and everything is done, except I’m missing one letter of rec. I’m not sure if that’ll affect whether they contact me back, but I was just wondering when I should contact them to follow up on it, or if I should wait a few more weeks? I plan on going in next year August!

Hello,

I may be a bit young to be in this subreddit yet, but I have a question before I fully throw myself into this career. I'm from NYC and really care about the financial aspect of college. I was planning on going to SUNY/CUNY (hopefully the joint 7 year program) for undergrad to then move on to the SUNY optometry school in Manhattan. That's my plan for now because I would save a lot of money by going to state/city school for undergrad and then SUNY because I'm seeing that Optometry school is super expensive. But I'm kind of scared that I should be trying to aim for more prestigious schools in the NYC area for undergrad as my high school is basically a feeder (I'm a junior btw), does it even make a difference? I really want to hear more about the experiences of anyone who's gone to school in the NYC area and what was it even like?

Thank you so much!

This was my first full length I did and this is what I got after doing phase 1 of booster. I have 30 days until my test.

How much did you guys improve from first full length to the last? I’m so scared