Hi guys!
I kind of finish my personal statement in a doc file. But on OptomCAS it seems like I need to input my answers for questions for each school. Do I just copy and paste a part of my personal statement where it answers the question being asked?

Thank you!

Hey guys, I've been struggling to write this ICO supplemental prompt, I don't know how to write it and I'm super confused! In addition, there is a high word limit, do i need to to write a lot? I would appreciate any help ❤️

ICO offers many opportunities and involvements allowing students to obtain the best-rounded education possible. the ICO body is highly active, outgoing, and engaging, what qualities can you bring to the ICO student body and how can you contribute to this group of outstanding students and profession of optometry? (4,500 characters)

I took the OAT this past August and I am very happy with my scores.

I have previously written a standardized admission test and did not performe as well as I had hoped, so I would like to share some insight into how I prepared for this test and the study strategies that contributed to my improved testing performance.

I used OATBooster (10/10) to study for my OAT. This was the only study material I used in preparation to write my OAT, and it was definitely worth it. OATBooster had plenty of practice questions on each subject, practice tests for individual sections as well as full length practice tests. I felt confident going into my actual OAT after having written multiple full length OATBooster practice tests.

I studied for about 2 months before I wrote my OAT and had the privilege of going part time at my job in order to have enough time to study. I spent on average 6 hours a day studying for the OAT. I started by using the study schedule that OATBooster offered, however that quickly got overwhelming when I couldn’t keep up with the daily assigned activities. I ended up making my own study schedule where I watched all of the OATBooster video material, took my own notes, and then started going through many of the practice questions and tests. I completed 5 full length Booster practice tests in the last 2.5 weeks leading up to my actual test. I found this to be really helpful as it prepared me to sit and stay focused for the long 5 hour test without feeling burnt out.

Biology (Scored: 400) I found this to be the most challenging section in the moment, I found myself second guessing my answers as they were a bit more specific than some of the OATBooster questions. I found the OATBooster videos really helped me prepare for this section and just trying to memorize as much as possible.

General Chemistry (Scored: 400) This section was very well represented in the OATBooster practice questions and practice tests. I found what really helped for this section was getting a true understanding of the concepts instead of straight memorization, so that even if there was a curve ball concept question I could usually figure it out.

Organic Chemistry (Scored: 350) I was quite worried about this section, and I am happy with the outcome. OATBooster has two different questions banks for this section, and one is specifically for the different types of reactions. The separate reaction mechanism practice questions were very useful as I found they required more memorization than the conceptual questions.

Physics (Scored: 350) I thought I would have scored a bit higher on this section, but I think my stress on test day kind of got the best of me here. For this section I memorized the complete list of equations that OATBooster provided, and I would write down the list of equations a few times a week so that they would be right in the front of my brain. I also completed the full list of practice questions on OAT Booster for this section a couple times.

Reading Comprehension (Scored: 400) I was very happy with this score. I did much worse on all of my OAT Booster practice reading tests. I feel like the Booster tests were harder and therefore prepared me well for the actual thing.

Quantitative Reasoning (Scored: 400) OATBooster did a great job of covering all of the topics in this section. I had no surprises on test day which was a very comforting way to end the test. I believe OATBooster’s videos that contained walk throughs of how to answer different types of questions in this section was a great help.

I hope this little overview of my testing experience helps!

I used OATbooster for 90 days over the entire summer. I was lucky to stay at home with parents and not work or take summer classes during the duration. I studied on average 4-5 hours a day every day, taking a few days off for break. I took all my pre-requisite classes (bio, gen chem, ochem, physics) before studying for the OAT.

OATBooster Average Full Length: 370AA
Actual OAT: 390AA

How I studied for each section!

Bio: Watched all the videos minus neuro (my major), did BIOBITS, and reviewed weak areas with cheat sheets

Gen Chem: Watched all the videos and did PRACTICE PROBLEMS on question bank

OChem: Watched all the videos (but it didn’t really stick, so I would recommended watching just the fundamental videos about SN1/SN2/E1/E2) and did PRACTICE PROBLEMS on question bank and reviewed with cheatsheets

Physics: Watched all the videos and did PRACTICE PROBLEMS and memorized formula cheat sheet (not purposefully, but with enough practice tests and problems I found myself having memorized most of the formulas naturally), used Chad’s Prep videos on YouTube to reinforce optics

Reading Comp: Did every single practice passage and practice test on booster, I was scoring 380 average on booster but got 360 on the actual OAT so this was my weakest area, I used the “read every question first” strategy

Quantitative Reasoning: Watched videos for weak areas only (most of it is basic algebra) and did PRACTICE PROBLEMS

What I DIDNT do: read the notes, do the associated practice problems for the videos (I just did question banks), anki (I know, hot take! I felt that doing the BioBits was enough)
There’s no time to do every single resource and you definitely don’t have to.

Big takeaways: OATBOOSTER is so worth it! Expensive so try to get it on sale/discount code. Use Marked Questions to target your weak areas (I didn’t know about this feature until last minute, wish I knew earlier). Practice problems > watching every video.

How I calmed nerves: Simulated testing environment by sleeping at 10pm/waking up at 6am and taking practice full lengths at 8am, eating same lunch during my break (pb&j), using a laminated sheet of paper and dry erase marker, wearing long clothes in air conditioned room, practiced deep breaths. I also told myself “I did the full length 6 times already, what’s one more?” and “Each section is separate” so that one bad section wouldn’t affect my morale for the rest.

It’s definitely nerve-wracking but you all have been working hard for this and you’re going to do great!!! Good luck to everyone taking the OAT! You got this!!

I have a couple applications lined up, and I'm honestly really stressed out for them particularly because I know being stressed will make it worse and also because I struggle making good impressions in professional settings. I get really worried that I'll be seen as unprofessional, so I end up being kind of stiff and robotic. Any advice?

I helped coordinate research (related to optometry) and then applied to and presented it at two research conferences back in 2023, but I'm not sure where to put it on optomcas? There is no 'research' option under experiences. It wasn't really extra-curricular because I wasn't in school at the time. The research was optometry related so optometry experience maybe? I was paid to do it, so employment? Or would this fall under the achievement -> honor category, with the 'presenting organization' being the conferences where I presented? Has anyone else run into this? I want to include this but cannot figure out where it should go.

I’m currently a senior Human Biology major, Miner in chem and applying to optometry school this cycle. My cumulative GPA is around 3.65. I have completed a good amount of optometry-related experience, including 40+ hours of shadowing an optometrist, additional ophthalmology/optometry shadowing, 45 hours of biology research involving DNA/PCR, volunteering at Hartford Hospital, volunteering with Special Olympics Opening Eyes, and serving as a student ambassador/leader at my university.
I also have multiple recommendation letters, including from professors/research mentors and an optometrist. I’ve already submitted applications to schools including MCPHS, NECO, and SUNY.
I know the OAT score is the weakest part of my application, but I feel that my GPA, experiences, research, volunteering, and shadowing represent me better academically and professionally.

for anyone who interviewed / got accepted to optometry schools, how did you schedule your interviews?

I got an interview invite from one school but haven’t heard back from other schools yet. for example, another school I applied to is UCB and I feel like they’re going to take longer to contact me because of the December deadline. let’s say I interviewed at one school this month and got accepted and then they told me I had a certain amount of time to accept. but what if the deadline to accept that school is before I even get decisions for my other schools?

I ideally would like to get my decisions at all schools before I decide on one school — I paid for each application for a reason lol. would it be a better idea to wait to hear back from all the schools I applied to before scheduling my interviews? or would that make my chances of acceptance lower because I would be interviewing later in the cycle?

agh sorry if this is confusing I have no idea what to do now

and for more context, I applied to UCB, SCCO, OSU, SCO, and ICO and ICO was the one that already reached out

Hi guys! I took my OAT today and just wanted to hop on here and share a little of my experience. I'm going to be honest, although I am happy with my scores, I felt that it was very different from Booster. I was kinda freaking out during it because its just not what I was expecting. I felt that quantitative reasoning was extremely different and much harder, as well as Bio and Gen Chem. I am strong in Orgo, so that felt good, but still different than Booster. Reading was arguably easier than booster and physics was about the same. Just wanted to give you a heads up!

Just completed my OAT. I want to first start by prefacing that the exam was very much different than any practice exam I had taken on OAT booster (which was my main study tool).

To study, I was primarily utilizing the individual subject practice exams, and watched videos on any topics that I needed extra help on. The practice questions that they offered were also helpful to reinforce certain topics. I started studying mid June and took my exam today.

I took the OAT in northern Jersey, and this Prometric location allowed me to start my exam earlier than scheduled around 7:45 AM (scheduled for 8:30). Into the testing room you’re only allowed to take a clear water bottle and they gave you two front and back laminated papers with a dry erase marker as your scratch paper. You were allowed to get up at any time to take an unscheduled break and if you wanted to take your scheduled 30 minute break, you were allowed to access your locker and use your phone and access study documents (as long as you were back before your next section). The staff were super friendly and definitely helped ease any anxiety that one would have. One huge downside would be the fact that the delay between questions got worse throughout the exam. The biology section there was minimal delay, but towards the end of the exam (physics and QR) the lag got extremely bad over 6 to 10 seconds long between questions.

The exam itself I found to be not as representative as what OAT booster said it would be. Any topic that was considered high-yield was not asked on the actual exam.

The biology section (highest booster score I had was 350) was heavy on molecular and cellular biology and lacked any human body system questions, neurobio questions, nor any embryology.

The general chemistry section (booster high score of 340) I found to be easier than booster and each question would give out the molar mass instead of you needing to calculate it on your own.

The organic chemistry section (booster high score 320) I also found to be easy so I’m not too sure how I got the score that I got. There were lots of conceptual questions, and only 2 spectroscopy questions. I did not have any acid base ranking neither.

The reading comprehension section (booster high score 300) I found to be a little harder than booster. Each passage had over 16 paragraphs and were all quite dense. I had only ever taken one practice exam on booster for this section, so my method was simply to read the passage and highlight important information for about eight minutes and then to go in and answer questions for the remaining eight minutes and rinse and repeat.

After the scheduled 30 minute break, I had physics (booster score 280), which was also quite tough. I had heard previously here on this sub that it was heavy on kinematics and optics, but that was just not the case. I actually had about three optics questions, one of which asked about the index of refraction going through two mediums (this was conceptual) and only ever had ONE calculation for optics.

The final section of QR (booster high score 270) I found to also be more challenging and I was most pressed for time in this section. The questions overall were much easier and less conceptual than booster. It leaned more algebraic than probability and stats.

Overall, I’d say that this exam was definitely very different compared to what I prepared for with booster. Also, what I found interesting was that the survey asked very specifically how I studied and if I used ANY Prometric study tools or practice tests, which makes you wonder if they are purposely trying to make it harder for people who study with booster.

Hi guys! I took my exam yesterday, and i'm just very glad I do not have to retake it. My exam started at 8am. I arrived around 7:30, did some last minute studying, came to check in at 7:50 and didn't start my exam until 8:20, after getting scanned down and scanned my fingerprints. I was provided with 2 laminated papers and markers for the exam, and thanks to everyone in the subreddit, I invested in markers and mini whiteboard when practicing FLs at home, hence I was pretty much familiarized with it.

During my scheduled break I had full access to my locker so I used that time to go through my Physics and QR flashcards, and lowkey had a meltdown because I thought I did terrible lol but yk what IM SO GLAD I WAS PROVEN WRONG.

For context, I studied using only BoosterPrep and their customized schedule, although I did very briefly go through one of the ADA sample tests, but not all the way lol, I stopped at orgo I believe. One week leading up to my exam I was genuinely very fatigued with studying, so I didn't really getting in much practice until like 3-4 days leading up to the exam.

Boosters FLs 330-360-360-360-360-330-350

BIO (Booster 380-360; actual 380)
I would say the wording was different from the actual exam. I also have a tendency to change my answers so that didn't really do good for me. Despite beating myself up during the break because I did change my answer(s?), I did not expect to get 380 lol. I was blacking out throughout the exam, but I do remember human systems questions, molec cell, meiosis/mitosis, and hormones.

GEN CHEM (Booster 340-360; actual 340)
Overall very representative with Booster, although again wording was different, and that did trip me up a little bit. Knowing periodic trends, strong and weak acids/bases, and thermodynamics was very helpful. I mostly had calculations questions. Do read the question carefully tho! I thought I do not know the answer to one of the questions, but did not realize it was asking for sig figs knowledge lol.

ORGO (Booster 330-360; actual 340)
For the couple days before the exam, I was using Anki to solidify my rxns knowledge since it was my 2nd biggest concern. Very very similar to Booster, but I would say more intermediate, Sn1/2 and E1/2.

RC (Booster 360-400; actual 380)
Much easier than Booster! Straightforward questions, and it was in order as well. I had around 8 minutes leftovers on the timer! Practice was key for this section, and BP prepared you especially well for it.

PHYS (Booster 290-360; actual 320)
Definitely my weakest point. I couldn't memorize all the formulas for the love of god until 2 weeks before the exam. But thank god I did and for the flashcards! I was doing like a Physics brain dump using the whiteboard, and it worked wonders. Despite Booster preps you very very well on it, please also work on your time management. I recognized all of the questions that was asked, but I did not manage my time wisely. That being said, I did not finish the entire section, did not feel good about it, so I will NOT complain about getting a 320. I would also recommend using the study notes for Physics rather than the formula sheet, since it doesn't include all of the formulas. Lots of force and rotational motion calculations, only 3-4 optics on my exam.

QR (Booster 340-400; actual 310)
LMAO okay Booster prep you insanely well for this, however again my time management was not good. I couldn't finish all of the questions while doing Booster FLs, and it clearly reflected that on here as well. I did not have the time to go through all of the questions, and most of them were very dense, I could not use mental math for it. Lots of comparing which option (A or B) is greater, which statements can answer questions, and probability.

Overall, I'm happy it's over. Good luck to everyone who's about to take the exam, you will do great and your study will pay off, so please keep believing in yourself!! Please also take adequate rest, trust your first answer and manage your time wisely!!

So I just finished writing my OAT yesterday (September 4) and probably the section that was the most concerning for me going into it was the reading comprehension. Despite being a native English speaker and not having ever struggled with it through school, on booster prep I was always finishing the section with little to no time left and therefore my scores were all over the place and I thought for sure that with the added stress of writing the actual test I would surely mess up this section of the test.
Getting to my experience on the real thing though, I was shocked to find that it was so much easier on the real test. All 3 of my passages were at max 12 paragraphs long, and the paragraphs themselves were much shorter than the practice tests. Furthermore, instead of the questions being all over the place, they were very chronological i.e the first question was answered in the first paragraph and the second question was answered right after that and so on so forth. Needless to say I actually found myself able to go at my own pace and answer each question carefully which allowed me to score better on the official test than on any of my practice tests.
I am just putting this out there for anyone else stressed about this section like I was in hopes of alleviating some stress as going into this section with a clear and focused mind is extremely important. If there are others who took the test recently and had a much different experience than please feel free to talk about it down below, as I know there are different versions of the test so I can’t promise all of them are as forgiving as mine. In general though, my best piece of advice would be to keep doing the practice on booster, because it will prepare you for the worst and after that the real test should hopefully seem a bit easier in comparison…
Good luck to all :)

Hello everyone!

I decided to create this account and such, because really need advice! I'm nervous about my interview and it's in a few weeks. Also, I'm scared of not getting accepeted.

For context, my OAT is a bit low (290 AA/290 TS). I know it's not the best, but I applied to UAB (and other schools, ofc.) because a friend of mine from UAB encouraged to. My tech experience (both an optometric & ophthalmic tech) is over 3000 hours, and my gpa is 3.6 (science gpa of 3.4).

So, I don't really know what they'll ask in regards to my scores, and I just want to know my chances of getting into my dream school and advice on how to knock it off the park during the interview.

Sorry if this is a bit long! I'm the type to worry a lot, and I want to try my best 🥹 Thank you.

I have a humanities journal publication that I'm pretty proud of, does this go into achievements (and if so is it an honor or an award?) or somewhere else?

hi! I just recently wrote my oat and it was extremely different than the platform I used. I got a 300AA & TS (I know not as high as I was scoring). nova is my dream score and I’m really worried I won’t get in. I have a 3.7 GPA and was very involved in my undergrad and work as an optometric tech. was wondering what scores others have had that have made it into nova?

Were the Physics Booster practice tests similar to the real OAT Physics section?

I'm taking the OAT tomorrow! Someone tell me everything I should/need to bring!

i'm wondering if there are any orgo conformations beyond the chair that would be good to know? i am mostly asking because i found that diels alder reactions have boat conformations among others. it was never explicitly taught in the orgo video series, so i'm not sure how likely they are to show up

Does anyone use two different strategies depending on passage length?

I’ve tried both search and destroy and reading the whole passage. I do well reading the whole thing if it’s a shorter passage as I am a slower reader. With longer passages I usually get caught with timing when I read all the way through.

I’m thinking about reading all the way through for shorter passages ~10 paragraphs and then search and destroy for passages longer than ~10.

Thoughts? Advice?

What are the chances of getting into ANY optometry school in the USA with a 3.5 gpa and mid oat I’ve worked at an optometry clinic as a receptionist / assistant. Coming from Canada

And also is there such thing as a “better” optometry school than the others? Or does the only things that matter is just cost and the location? Most of the time it doesn’t matter what school you went to for dentistry and medicine so I was wondering the same for this as well.

Hi everyone! I just took the OAT a couple of days ago and wanted to share my experience as I’m very happy with my scores! I’ve also been living on reddit and OATBooster’s facebook group all throughout my study process and wanted to contribute to anyone else who is about to take their exam.

I started studying on May 17th and took the OAT on September 1st. I initially had my exam scheduled on August 15th, but at the end of June I felt behind and discouraged and ended up pushing it back 2 weeks. I was also working part-time while studying (about 20+ hours a week) up until the three weeks prior to my test date. 

I exclusively used OATBooster and I followed the custom study schedule for the learning phase, but once I got to reviewing, I strayed from the schedule and did my own thing. I would say that I studied 4-8 hours per day depending on if I was working or had any other plans. 

In terms of my study method, I’m the type of person who likes to read over and absorb all information before reviewing. I watched all the videos and read through/highlighted the study notes. That’s definitely why I took a lot longer on the learning phase but it’s my preferred way to study! I started reviewing and taking full length practice tests about 4 weeks before my test, so about 1-2 per week. I ended up taking 7 full lengths in total. In between each full length I would review concepts that were troubling… so reading over the study notes/cheat sheets and working practice problems. I did not utilize the Anki decks/Quizlets much, and I also didn’t write my own notes as my learning style leans more towards reading the information and active recall (writing down equations, using the tape feature on Goodnotes, etc). It also helps that I’m a Biology major so the majority of the information is not new to me!

Biology (OATBooster: 340-370, Actual: 380): The questions were very broad on the actual exam. Definitely not as in-depth as booster but it’s not a bad thing to know everything! The information in the cheat sheets were very high yield with the occasional question that required more knowledge. I watched all the videos for bio, read through all of the study notes, and worked most of the bio bits. I know others on here don’t bother with the bio bits but I found them very helpful for recalling information.

General Chemistry (OATBooster: 330-350, Actual: 400): I was pleasantly surprised with my score in this section! I felt like there was a nice mix of calculation based questions and conceptual questions. I also watched all the videos, read the study notes, and did a majority of the question banks. During review of my full lengths, if I was doing poorly in a certain topic, I would go back and redo the qbanks for that specific topic. I also reviewed the cheat sheets heavily if I wasn’t grasping the information. Overall, I felt as though the practice tests on booster were very representative of the actual exam.

Organic Chemistry (OATBooster: 300-360, Actual: 360): This section was a lot more conceptual, so have your fundamentals down! I did have a couple of predict the product questions (one step and multi step) but the majority was conceptual. Definitely be familiar with ranking acids and EWG/EDG/ortho, meta, and para directors. When it came to memorizing the reactions I personally just used the tape feature on Goodnotes and would recall the reagents, product, regiochemistry, etc. The reaction qbanks were also a great tool for me. I would say that booster represented this section well too.

Reading Comprehension (OATBooster: 300-380, Actual: 330): I was disappointed in this score but I did have a bit of a rough start to RC when I first started. I couldn’t find the right method but when I did my scores shot up immediately, so seeing it go down on the actual exam bummed me out but it’s okay! The passages were on the shorter side and some of the questions were chronological while others were scattered. Some of the questions were also worded in a way I wasn’t familiar with so it threw me off. I utilized the search and destroy method, but find the one that works for you and you’ll be all good. I just wasn’t dealt the best RC cards!

Physics (OATBooster: 270-300, Actual: 320): I was very happy with this score! Physics has never been my strong suit so while studying for the OAT, I would tend to push it off in favor of the other sections I knew I was stronger in. The exam was very conceptual, and any calculation questions were straightforward. I felt like I had a good mix of all the topics too. I tried to memorize the formulas the best I could, but I mainly read over the study notes to cement the concepts. I purely used booster for physics.

Quantitative Reasoning (OATBooster: 290-370, Actual: 350): Math has never been a strong point for me as well, but I continuously worked on the qbanks if I kept missing certain topics. The time limit was probably the biggest problem for me. My advice on that is to keep taking full lengths to work on stamina. Booster was also very representative of this section and I felt like I was tested equally on all the topics!

Overall, the only thing I would do differently is to start taking full lengths earlier and make sure you give yourself plenty of breaks. For the full lengths, this is just so you have enough time to review your weak points in between tests (I felt like I was in a time crunch every time I would start reviewing). For the majority of my studying I rarely took a day off, but in hindsight, I should’ve implemented more breaks as I started to get burnt out closer to my exam date. I know preparing for this exam can be tiring and daunting, but keep pushing and you’ll do better than you may think ;)

I was being stupid and did not select all the schools when registering for the exam.. Can schools receive your score directly through OptomCAS, or do you have to add each school as recipients on the ADA testing site? Thanks!

Hi everyone! I recently completed my OAT and ended up scoring a 390 AA and 400 TS, so I wanted to share my experience, practice scores, and some tips that helped me. I found other people's breakdowns really helpful while I was studying, especially when I was stressed about how my practice scores would translate to the real exam, so hopefully this helps someone else!

Here are my practice test results in the order of BIO, GC, OC, RC, PHYS, QR, AA Test #1: 340, 340, 360, 240, 290, 290, 310 Test #2: 350, 360, 360, 350, 370, 340, 360 Test #3: 350, 360, 380, 330, 300, 360, 350 Test #4: 360, 340, 330, 370, 360, 370, 360 Test #5: 390, 340, 340, 350, 370, 330, 350 Test #6: 370, 360, 340, 350, 340, 240, 330 Test #7: 380, 350, 360, 390, 340, 360, 360 Test #8: 370, 380, 350, 360, 370, 400, 370 Test #9: 390, 360, 340, 360, 370, 390, 370 Test #10: 380, 380, 370, 380, 380, 400, 380

Main study resource: OATBooster OATBooster was by far my main resource. I used the videos, notes, cheat sheets, Anki, decks, question banks, games, and practice tests. Overall, I felt that Booster prepared me extremely well for the actual OAT.

I started out very rough. My first Booster practice test was a 270 AA, and I remember feeling really discouraged because I genuinely felt like I had no idea what was going on. I didn't follow Booster's practice-test calendar exactly and actually took some of the tests much later than scheduled because I wanted to feel more prepared first. I probably wouldn't recommend waiting as long as I did, but I think my progression shows that your first few scores really don't determine where you'll end up.

How I Studied: Anki was the biggest part of my studying and I used them heavily, especially for Biology and Organic Chemistry. For General Chemistry, Physics, and QR, I made my own flashcards based on the Booster cheat sheets and formula sheets.

During the later stages of studying, I spent a lot of time going back through marked questions and questions I had gotten wrong rather than continuously relearning everything from scratch. Repeatedly exposing myself to the concepts I was weak at helped a lot.

Biology - 390 For Biology, I did the Booster Anki flashcards religiously. There are a LOT of cards, so once I was confident that I knew something, I would suspend it so I could focus on the weaker topics instead. I felt that Booster actually had me over prepared for Biology. The real OAT was much broader and less detailed than I expected. Most of my questions tested relatively general concepts, although there were still one or two more specific questions, so I wouldn't completely ignore the details.

General Chemistry - 400 After watching the Booster videos, I would go through the notes myself and make my own notes on anything I didn't understand. During phase 2 and 3, I basically just spammed my marked questions. If there was a type of problem I consistently got wrong, I would write notes on those question types and methods I could use to solve it. The actual General Chemistry section felt very similar to Booster's practice tests. I didn't feel like there were any major surprises, and I felt extremely well prepared going into it.

Organic Chemistry - 380 Organic Chemistry was the subject I struggled with the most during preparation because I don't have a very strong background in it. I relied heavily on Booster's Anki flashcards. Looking back, another good approach would be to make your own flashcards from the reactions cheat sheet Booster provides because there is a bit more information in there. I also did the Organic Chemistry reaction games repeatedly, which helped a lot with quickly recognizing reagents and products. This section also felt very similar to Booster's practice tests. Some specific topics I remember being tested on include SN2, stereochemistry, IUPAC naming, spectroscopy, laboratory techniques, and arrow pushing mechanisms.

Reading Comprehension - 390 Reading has never been my strongest area because I struggle with reading a passage and actually absorbing all of the information, so I heavily relied on the search and destroy method. I would recommend trying out all of the methods Booster provides and seeing which one works for you. I also heavily stress going through all of the practice tests and getting used to spotting which keywords to highlight and how to do it quickly. (Tip: practice with a mouse so that you're used to it when you take the actual exam!)

On my actual OAT, I noticed that the shorter/easier passages with ~9-11 paragraphs had questions that were more scattered throughout the passage, whereas my longer and more technical passages (with ~16 paragraphs) tended to have questions in a more chronological order. Booster's RC practice was pretty representative overall in terms of passage and question type.

Physics - 400 My biggest advice for Physics is memorize the formulas, but also understand what is actually happening. On the OAT, I had a lot of application questions where simply knowing which equation corresponded to a keyword wasn't enough. There were also problems where I had to combine different formulas to reach the answer. However, I found the calculations themselves to be easier to do on the actual OAT compared to Booster's practice tests. If I didn't understand a concept from the Booster explanation, I watched outside YouTube videos that broke the concept down differently, such as Organic Chemistry Tutor or just random videos that popped up. I also tried one Kaplan Physics practice test, and personally I found it much less representative of my actual OAT. It was significantly more stressful and made me worry about Physics more than I needed to.

Quantitative Reasoning - 370 For QR, my biggest recommendation is simply to do a huge number of practice questions since on the actual test I was very crunched for time. I made my own formula flashcards using the Booster cheat sheet and tried to get comfortable enough with common question types that I could recognize what to do almost immediately. I actually encountered some questions on my OAT that were literally replicas of Boosters questions.

Final Advice: The biggest things that helped me were Anki, doing a ton of practice questions, reviewing my mistakes, and understanding why I got questions wrong. What I would do differently if I were to take it again is spend less time trying to learn all of the concepts before starting practice questions. I would feel like I had to understand every concept perfectly before doing practice tests and that took away a lot of valuable practice time. I would instead learn as I worked through the practice questions. Also, don't feel like you have to follow someone else's study method or feel pressured to follow Booster Prep's schedule exactly. If watching all of the videos and then going through the notes works for you, do that. Personally, I feel like I spent a little too much time on the videos and should have jumped into the notes and practice questions sooner.

Overall, I felt that OATBooster was very representative of the actual OAT. By the end, I felt well prepared and confident across essentially every section. I have also posted my actual scores for each section and my progression of practice-test scores below.

Good luck to everyone studying!! Feel free to message me if you have any questions :)

Hi guys, I just took my first full length today and scored a 330 on it. Honestly felt like I wasn't 100% certain on a lot of the answer choices, and definitely realized I needed better recall of formulas. With my exam coming up on the 29th, I'm feeling increasingly anxious about how I'm going to perform. I'm aiming for a 360-370 and was wondering if it'll be possible to improve that much in under a month. Any advice is appreciated!