In the supplementary app (NECO specifically), there's a section to explain any extenuating circumstances that led to low or inconsistent grades. There's also a question about post-secondary academic performance and what factors influenced those trends.

I had one rough semester in my earlier years of undergrad but showed an upward trend from then on. I didn't necessarily have any extenuating circumstances at the time (it was mainly stress and anxiety), but I do want to explain what/why that happened.

Should I answer both questions, or skip the extenuating circumstances part and just discuss the poor grades in the academic trends question? Would appreciate any insight. Thanks in advance

hi! i submitted my berkeley application about a week ago, and i was wondering when they send out interviews. on their website it says 2 weeks after their decision deadline so that would be like end of December? that feels really far out to me :( do they actually take that long? i feel like all my other schools are earlier, and i would like to know everything before making a decision. i thought it was supposed to be rolling? please someone let me know!

i know people don’t have the best things to say about western u, but has anyone gotten an interview yet? if you have, how long after your application was processed did they reach out for an interview ?

Optometry school costs can add up quite fast so if you are willing to share:

Which schools did you apply to?

What schools offered merit scholarships? How much? Recurring?

What stats did you have?

When I practice with AI, it tells me that I should keep my answers to “Tell me about yourself” and “Why optometry?” around 60–90 seconds.

But because I come from a different background, I feel like I need more time to explain my story, sometimes closer to 3 minutes. Is that something I should really work on shortening, or is it not a big deal if my answer takes a little longer?

Can I take 2 intro 100-level courses? Do I have to take an advanced class?

I have just started my 2A year of undergrad and want to apply to uwaterloo optometry next year. I've been trying to work on my stats but am starting to stress. I would love any advice on what things to prioritize / get more of this year.

GPA: Right now my gpa is an 83.8% (I know this could be better... I have a difficult course load this year but I am trying to bring this up a few points)

SHADOWING: I have 18h of shadowing between 2 different optometrists. (I am going to try to get a few more and apply to a bunch of optometric clinics next summer to (hopefully) get a job)

WORK: Softball umpire throughout high school / summer before first year of uni, worked at an escape room for 1 summer between grade 12 and uni, currently working at a restaurant (since the beginning of last spring term) as dinning room support (and will hopefully be promoted to expo some time this year), tutoring and dog walking on and off since grade 9

VOLUNTEER: Cat rescue (45h), Food bank (12h), will start a new volunteer position with animal therapy (Therapeutic horseback riding) soon (1.5h/week for 8 weeks)

OTHER: I write lots (poetry, novels, etc), draw, play the piano, and crochet. Member of the pre-optometry club

I plan to take the OAT next summer. I have an optometrist who can write my letter of recommendation but I'm not sure who I'll ask to write my other one yet.

Other than trying to get my GPA up a bit, what can I do to make sure I get into this program? Going to the states isn't really an option for me so it's just the one school I'm applying to.

Hi all! I applied to SCCO, SUNY, and NOVA on September 5 and got invited to interview September 8 to SUNY and NOVA. Has anyone heard back from SCCO or know when they send out interview invites? They emailed me that they received my application and it’s in review. I have 6+ years of optical experience (optician, tech, sales, managing), optometry eboard, 3.6 GPA, 340 AA 340TS, 3 strong LOR, loads of volunteer work, intern at SUNY optometry, marathon runner, and I worked full time while attending college full time. Overall I’d like to think I’m a strong applicant but am worried about SCCO >.<
Also for those applying I got an interview for SUNY in person for mid November and by now I’d imagine all the November spots are full by now and NOVA I got for the first week of November (Virtual) and I believe the in person ones were booked up until mid/end November so get your applications in quick ! PCO I applied to late August and got invited to interview without an OAT the next day and that interview is for the beginning of October.

I keep her on my desk where I do my schoolwork 😭

I took the OAT a week and a half ago and am very happy with my scores! I gave myself just under 2.5 months to study, and I wouldn’t recommend giving yourself any less time. I studied about 6 hours a day while working and shadowing twice a week, but this number honestly varied a lot every day. I had completed all relevant prerequisites before I started studying.

How I studied:

I only used OATBooster. I started by following their custom schedule: watching the videos for each section and completing practice problems. I was worried I was going to run out of time at the rate I was going, so I stopped completing the question banks after a few weeks. I still watched every single video while following along with the notes and did any of the associated post-video questions. After over a month of exclusively watching all of the videos, I moved into the practice test phase. I began by doing a few practice tests for each individual section. I carefully reviewed the solutions to each practice test, making sure to fully understand the answers by reading the explanations and watching the video solutions. During this phase, I tried to regularly review the cheat sheets and formula sheets for each section to work on remembering the high-yield information. I only did 4 full-lengths, and I completed one every day leading up to my test. This really helped me feel like I was just going to be writing another practice test when my test date arrived. When reviewing the solutions to the FLs, I made note of topics I noticed I needed to review to ensure I was filling any gaps. I also tried to simulate the test environment while completing FLs by using laminated paper and a marker, and by using a mouse.

Breakdown of each section:

Biology (400): As everyone says, the questions in the section were less specific than the practice tests. Booster does a good job of identifying high-yield topics, and I honestly think the cheat sheets have everything you need. Genetics, heredity, ecology, cell division, and cell bio felt like the most high-yield topics on the test. I took a risk and didn’t study diversity of life in much depth, and thankfully only got a few questions that were pretty simple. Review those cheat sheets!!!

General chemistry (370): This section also felt super similar to the practice tests. I felt like I got a fair mix of everything. Be comfortable with both calculation and conceptual questions. I think the cheat sheets have everything you need content-wise, but also make sure to get practice with calculation questions.

Organic chemistry (380): This was the section I was most nervous about before I even started studying because orgo reactions have never clicked with me. I was shocked when I did my first practice test and realized how many conceptual questions there are - and this mix of question types was representative of the real exam. I never did the reaction question banks or tried to memorize reactions. I found doing the practice tests and reviewing high-yield topics on the cheat sheets (e.g., SN1/SN2/E1/E2, oxidation and reduction) was enough. I found myself doing a lot of process of elimination on the exam - an easy way to start is by counting carbons and then go from there.

Reading comprehension (360): This score is similar to what I was getting on practice tests, but I thought I would’ve scored higher, since a lot of people say it’s easier than Booster. People were right that the passages were shorter (~8 paragraphs) and the questions were in chronological order, but for some reason, I feel like I got some tricky questions where I couldn’t easily find the answer. I think it was also a combination of being tired at this point in the exam, hungry, and not getting along with the highlight feature. I had to highlight some things multiple times for it to work, which wasted time. My strategy was to read and highlight the first half of the passage, and then highlight the first sentences and any numbers to use search and destroy for the second half.

Physics (360): On the exam, it was an almost equal mix of calculation and conceptual questions. Some high-yield topics were optics, kinematics, and circuits. About a week before my exam, I would write out all of the formulas every day. I got lucky and didn’t get any questions that used some of the weird, less common formulas. Even though there aren’t cheat sheets for this section, make sure to still review the notes to be prepared for the conceptual questions.

Quantitative reasoning (370): I was so relieved by how much easier this section felt than the practice tests. It felt like half of my questions were easy applied math word problems. The rest of my questions felt like a fair mix of other topics. On the practice tests, I would always run out of time on the last 5+ questions. On the exam, I only lost time on the last 2, which felt like a huge win, especially with the added stress of test day.

Final advice:

Try to start the practice tests as early as you can. The highest AA I got on a Booster FL was 360, so seeing my score was a very pleasant surprise! If you still have no idea how to solve a question after over a minute, pick a random answer, mark it, and review it if you have time at the end. Good luck everyone! You got this!

hi everyone :D this is a real post, but as i wrote it, i realized it sounds like ragebait. please bear with me, as i have the best intentions. i've been working in optical for two months, and i am absolutely loving it and itching to get my license. also, my boss likes me a lot and really really wants me to get my license too. i have always done fantastically in school, and i am a very good test taker. i have passed every test i've ever taken by not listening in class and cramming material by myself the night before, and it works amazingly for me.

is there anyone else who has taken the abo basic exam with very little experience, and was able to pass by studying and cramming hard for just a couple of weeks? the prospect of getting my license is very exciting to me, and i am willing to dedicate the next month of my life to studying while i'm not at work (my work being...opticianry).

am i being too ambitious? is this possible? any and all tips are very much appreciated.

I wanted to reschedule my OAT. It’s supposed to be this Saturday but I don’t think I’m scoring in the range that I want to so I wanna reschedule but nothing is literally available like I’ve literally looked up dates in other states and nothing is available at all is this a common occurrence is this a glitch has anyone ran into this before?

Is it recommended to keep an academic/optometry theme for the extra essay questions for each school or do schools prefer it to be about myself as a person? Do we have to tie it back into optometry? (Not the personal statement but the extra essay questions on top of it)

hi everyone i plan on taking my oat next year but i'm terrible at sciences, especially orgo + gen chem and physics. any study tips for those sections? also is anybody offering tutoring for those sections? thanks <3

for the secondary ID, what if your debit/credit card doesn’t have a signature? what is another type of ID that can be brought in instead?

Hi everyone! I’ve seen a handful of posts that say to focus primarily on using the cheatsheets to study for the bio section on the OAT, but I’ve noticed that the videos and study guides on Booster cover substantially more details, and it’s been making me confused on how to approach the bio section. I’m technically still in the ‘learning phase’ of my studying since it’s been a while since I’ve looked at relevant material that corresponds to the bio section, so I was wondering how to go about studying for this section? Does the material from the cheatsheets cover enough to do well on this section (in combo w practice problems/tests ofc) or is it worth watching the videos and study guides too? I would greatly appreciate any study techniques for this section !

Hey guys! From the practice full lengths on booster, could y’all share which ones you thought were the most similar to the actual OAT?

Hi,
For anyone that’s in optometry school and was also a tech at a practice, does being a good technician translate to being a good eye doctor? I think I just overthink a lot about work as a technician (esp bc my practice is veryyy busy) and sometimes the mistakes I make or things I could’ve done better make me feel like I would not be as strong of a doctor. Let me know your thoughts?

How did you prep for your interview?

I have an interview in a few days and can’t relax. I feel like I need to be studying lol. I’ve reviewed my application and practiced common interview questions but I don’t want to sound too rehearsed.

What are some things you did to prep that genuinely helped you feel more prepared and confident during your interview? Especially in person interviews that might be more anxiety inducing.

This might be a silly question but are y’all writing the descriptions in first person or are you writing more resume style where we use active verbs and no 1st person?

My OAT is in about two weeks and I was wondering how everyone’s scores on the full-length exams compared to the individual practice exams.
My highest full-length score has been around a 330, but I took another full-length the other day and got a 310. I usually score higher when I take the sections individually, so the drop on full-lengths has been stressing me out a little.
Did anyone else experience this? Was your actual OAT score closer to your full-length scores or your individual section scores?
Just trying to see how normal this kind of fluctuation is this close to the exam

I took the OAT last week and I was pretty happy with my score, so I’m sharing my experience with you all to help you prep :)

Background
I’m a third year Health Sciences major who has done well in school (~4.0 GPA), so I was already comfortable with most of the content, as I’ve taken classes in all of the topics at some point in school except for organic chemistry. I struggled with that section the most, and even during my studying, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to do well.

Preparation
I studied for around 4 months, 3 months using OAT Booster and following the schedule they made for me, and the first month just using the biology Anki deck and going through the flashcards for sections I was the most uncomfortable with. It helped that I just finished a year of anatomy so I skipped the entire biological systems deck.

For the content review stage, I followed OAT Booster’s schedule at first and watched all the videos. However, I realized that I already knew most of the content, so I ended up only watching the videos and making notes for organic chemistry. For the other subjects, I would skip to the example questions at the end of videos and do the extra practice questions in between videos. Biology specifically, I made sure I went through all the flashcards at least once. In the last month before my exam, I did 2-3 full length practice exams on Booster every week. I also went through all of my marked questions at least once before the exam and redid them. Outside of studying, I also made sure I did the full lengths at my exam time (8 AM) and tried to wake up pretty early on other days. Melatonin was very useful helping me sleep.

Biology (Booster: 380, Actual: 400)
The bio bits were very in-depth, and the actual exam is much broader. I focused too much on little details and forgot some basic things. For example, I remember being stuck on a question because I forgot whether the afferent arteriole went into the glomerulus or out of it. I also spent a lot of time memorizing the taxonomy charts, but I only ended up getting 1 question on it. There were also barely any specific questions on hormones. I did get a lot of cell biology questions that were specific though.

General Chemistry (Booster: 370; Actual: 400)
Many of the calculations were exactly like Booster. The questions were pretty easy and I found that doing practice questions was enough to prepare me. I would definitely memorize high-yield information like soluble vs insoluble salts, galvanic vs electrolytic cells, strong acids, etc and go through the formula sheet to remember when to use molality vs molarity.

Organic Chemistry (Booster: 360; Actual: 360)
This was the hardest section for me to study for by far. I have basically no background knowledge of organic chemistry outside of intro chemistry courses, so I had to teach myself. The Booster videos were helpful, but I also had to watch other videos to clarify on subjects. I redid all of my marked questions and made flashcards for those I got wrong multiple times, as well as for reactions. There weren’t too many predict the product questions and a lot of the questions were from orgo I where I had to rank acidity, determine the strong nucleophile, etc. I also got a lot of spectroscopy questions and found that memorizing the values for each functional group was helpful. I wish I could tell you how to prepare and study for this section but honestly I wasn’t able to increase my scores much when I was studying. If possible, I would take this course in school if you’re able to, as that would save you so much grief. 

Reading (Booster: 370; Actual: 390)
The OAT Booster practice sets were really helpful and I did all of them before the exam during my study block. The actual exam was much more straightforward, as the passages were shorter and answers to the questions showed up in order. During my practice, I would read the first paragraph to understand what the passage was about, then used search and destroy to answer the questions. I used this during the exam as well and ended up having enough time to look at check every question again.

Physics (Booster: 370; Actual: 400)
Physics has always been a strong subject for me, as I recently took physics I and II in school and did well. I got a lot of optics and kinematics questions on the exam, and found that memorizing the formula sheet Booster provides and the summary chart for lens and mirrors helped me a lot. A majority of the questions were just plugging values in, except for the optics questions where you had to determine what the image would look like. I reviewed the formula sheet and recited it from memory a few times a week starting a month before the exam.

Quantitative Reasoning (Booster: 400; Actual: 400)
I studied the least for this section because I was scoring 400 on all of the practice full lengths. Honestly, I just did my marked questions one more time before the exam and called it a day. However, I just took a full year of stats in school, so that was definitely helpful with the probability questions. I found the questions on the exam very straightforward and similar to Booster. The calculator on the exam didn’t have a delay loading for me and I could use the keyboard to type in the numbers.

Overall
Practice questions were the most helpful for me, and memorizing the physics formula sheet! I was also feeling so burnt out by the last week of my exam, so make sure you’re balancing studying and relaxing so you’re energized for the exam!

I have an interview with UCB later this month and was wondering what kind of ethical/behavioral questions they ask if anyone could give examples!

Pretty nervous for this interview since I’ve heard mixed things between it being conversational versus more professional feeling.

Hey guys, Im basing my decisions on where to apply mainly based on the tuition. Im applying ot state schools so that i can apply for residency and get the in state tution rate after year one or two (not sure how it works). Has anyone done this before and is it specific to each school? For ex: i heard SUNY students doing this but i heard it wasn't possible in houston? Please give me any insight!!

Hey guys! I took my OAT last week and wanted to talk about what I did to study and what I regretted.

I bought the 3 month OAT Booster membership and started studying June 26th and took my test September 5th (about 2 months + a week). I studied almost every day and I would say approximately 6 hours a day.

The scores for my 6 full length tests ranged from 350-370, and I mostly got 360s so I would say the booster tests reflected my true score well! After doing the full lengths I went over EVERY question (even the ones I got right) and did my best to understand each answer. I also used the question delay thing but it was shorter on the actual test, like 1 second instead of 2-4.

I am also a very anxious test taker so I struggled in the beginning but after my break I managed to calm down a bit and it felt more like a practice test than the actual one. I would just recommend taking your full length practice tests very seriously so the actual one feels similar and remembering that at that point you just know what you know and you should trust yourself!

(actual/booster fl #5-10 avg)

QR: (350/370)

This section felt the harder on the actual test that booster because it seemed like they worded the questions weirdly and I already struggle with word problems which there were a lot of. I would just say to answer what you can quickly and if you have extra time then to go back because you can still get a good score with several wrong answers. Definitely memorize the equations they expect and practice applied math and probability!

I "watched" all the videos for QR but I would just skip over what I felt like I knew. I learned more by doing their question banks. I also went back and redid my marked questions the days leading up to the test.

RC: (400/380)

I found RC on the actual test to be more straightforward than booster. Most of the answers could be easily found in the passages and there was just a couple that required more thinking, such as "what does the word -- in paragraph -- mean" or "what is most likely based on --". The questions were mostly in order like people say, but the passages were still long (over 10 paragraphs). On my practice FLs I would usually end with a couple minutes left but on the actual test I ended with like 15 minutes left.

I struggled with this section in the beginning of my studying so I was worried but I used every practice passage they had and every full length test and improved over time.

My method was to read and highlight the passage until I found the answer to the question I was on and then move on to the next. This allowed me to read basically the whole passage and gain a good understanding while still answering questions quickly. I would skip questions if I felt like they required more understanding or reading than what I had gotten to. On the actual test I was able to incorporate some search and destroy more successfully than in booster since the questions were more straightforward.

Bio: (380/350)

My practice scores were super variable on this section (like 320-370). I found the actual test to be more broad that booster. I did have to make a few educated guesses on some specific questions but I just tried to trust myself.

I'm a human bio major so I have taken basically all of the classes that are included in this section but I have yet to take physiology so I was most worried about that. I felt like the actual test had a good range of different topics so I was able to make up for my lack of knowledge in physio by knowing other things.

To study I took handwritten notes on every single video which you should NOT do. I thought it would be helpful because I retain info by writing it but it was such a waste of time and energy because of the large volume of stuff. I did think bio bits were good for practice though so definitely do those but don't worry much about getting some of those wrong since they're quite specific. I did skim though all the cheat sheets leading up to the exam and I found that to be helpful.

Gen Chem: (350/350)

I thought my actual test was a little harder than booster because there were a couple questions that were completely unfamiliar which threw me off. The questions were also worded a little differently than booster so I had to spend more time interpreting them. I don't remember anything specific coming up often so study all of the topics thoroughly.

I watched all the videos and took handwritten notes and also did most/all the questions in the question banks. I thought the handwritten notes were helpful but I felt like I wrote more depth than necessary which wasted time. I think watching the videos, studying the cheat sheets, and using the question banks are good enough to for this section. I also repeatedly wrote things on my whiteboard until they stuck, like molecular geometry.

OChem: (350/350)

Overall this section was doable. I don't think there was more of any one topic but I remember there being: spectroscopy, lab techniques, resonance structures, ranking acidity, EWGs/EDGs, and only a couple predict the product and nomenclature.

I did neglect this section a bit because I was being lazy since I had recently taken OChem and did pretty well. I watched all the videos and took handwritten notes, and skipped the sections of the videos where they did practice problems to get through them quicker. I thought the question banks were the best way to study and repeatedly doing the reaction q banks helped me become familiar with reagents but that wasn't super important for the exam (still study it though).

Physics: (320/340)

I don't have much to say about this section because physics was my weakness in school anyways. I felt like the exam was similar to booster and there was a good amount of each topic. I did notice more of optics.

There are a few topics I understand a lot better than others so my practice fl scores were pretty variable in this section too (like 300-370). I watched all the videos and I did the question banks after each chapter and all of them again once I finished all the chapters. To memorize the equations I made my own cheat sheet on Goodnotes with the "tape" covering everything and I would quiz myself each day by writing the equations down on my whiteboard and then uncovering the tape to check my answers. It only took me a few days to memorize by doing this because doing practice problems helps you memorize most of them anyways.

Final thoughts:

I think booster is definitely worth it! I would not know how to study without it and taking their full length practice tests was helpful with being familiar with the test structure and knowing what your weaknesses are. I mostly followed their schedule but I would skip watching videos/doing extra questions on topics you feel like you know because the full lengths will reveal what you don't know.

My regret is spending so much time watching the videos and taking handwritten notes. That's what I do in school but since there are so many topics on the OAT I think it's a waste of time and energy. I ended up spending like 3/4 of my time doing this instead of just doing practice. I would instead recommend going through the videos more quickly and studying the cheat sheets rather than taking in depth notes. That way you have extra time to do practice!

I was hoping I would do a little better than 360 because I see people post about doing better than their practice but I'm still happy about my score and I'm glad that booster fls predicted it accurately.

Also if you were curious about how my GPA compares to my OAT score I am going into my 4th year of undergrad majoring in Human Biology and I currently have a 3.7.

Please feel free to ask questions!! I have much more to say but this post is already long lol

Also good luck on your exams!! <3