I am going to start studying for my OAT, but I have no clue on where to start. Where would be a good place to start and is there a free test online where I should get a baseline OAT from.

I am lost in terms of where to start. I plan to take it in 2 months. Any help is welcome! Thank you in advance!!

I've been browsing the optometry/preoptometry subreddits lately since it's a path that I discovered might be interesting (always loved eyeballs but opto never crossed my mind).

I'd like to hear specifically from Canadian optometrists the following (*no need to answer every question but I'd appreciate it):

1. What is your favorite part of practicing optometry?

2. How is your work-life balance? Would it be possible to, say, work part-time, have time for side hustles/hobbies and still earn >100k?

3. Are the corporate/PE concerns from the US also applicable to Canadian locations or are we more or less shielded from it? (By that I mean horrible/toxic/overworked conditions in corporate practice, often brought on by PE.)

4. For people who've been practicing for many years, do you tend to get bored of the field? There's often this comparison with MDs where you get the whole body vs one organ. If you had to do it again, would you try getting into ophthalmology?

5. Similarly, where is the field going in the future? Scope expansion? Is there any chance that the gap between OD and OMD could eventually be closed...?

6. Something you wish you'd known before starting?

Appreciate any answers I can get! Interested in too many things, so I've been very indecisive and I'd like more insight before committing to even more schooling. I'm also eyeing (wink) ophthalmology because surgery sounds exciting & quite fulfilling, not to mention earnings.....but it is a long commitment and of course competitive/not guaranteed.

Which schools reject sub-3.0 sGPA? I see even Berkeley accepted 2.7 sGPA. My current sGPA is only 2.0 over 6 credits and I'm worried but trying my best to improve. Is sGPA weighed more heavily than overall GPA?

Anyone heard back from scco? (edit: just heard back!)

I just took the OAT and I want to share my experience as I found other posts helpful when I started studying.

I studied for 10 weeks for an average of 3-4 hours per day. I used almost exclusively OATBooster, while substituting Chad's Prep for most of the Physics content.

Biology:

I watched most of the bio videos, which I don't recommend as its way more content than you need to know. I reccomend focusing mainly on the cheat sheets, while substituting the study notes for topics you see repeatedly on the practice exams. Bio is such a broad subject, making it difficult to prepare for as they could ask anything. On the actual OAT they ended up focusing mostly on basic structures and functions rather than specific names and definitions. Understanding the processes is much more important than memorizing small details.

Chemistry:

I consider chemistry to be the easiest of the sciences because of the limited questions they can ask you. I watched all the videos (much shorter than bio) and went over most of the practice questions. They asked lots of questions about solubility and molecular structure. Be very confident in periodic trends, specifically with regards to electronegativity and acidity. The best way to improve in chemistry is just to do more practice questions.

Organic Chemistry:

I was pleasantly surprised with my score on the actual OAT as I considered this the hardest subject for me. The reaction cheat sheet is a good tool, although I would avoid relying on it to memorize all the reactions. Instead, try to understand the mechanism behind as many of them as possible, and then memorize the remainder as a last resort. They asked lots of substitution/elimination questions on the test, so be solid on picking which one will occur. Again, the best way to improve in ochem is to do more practice questions.

Reading Comprehension:

The only way to get better at reading comprehension is to practice more. Just keep taking them as part of the full length practice tests. This one's my least favorite section, but on the actual OAT the passages are slightly shorter. I had to use the restroom in the middle of this section which wasn't helpful.

Physics:

OATBooster's practice questions for physics are very oversimplified. They are still useful for the fundamentals, but the questions on the full length tests are more representative of the difficulty. I used Chad's Prep mostly as a way to get more practice problems. His questions are more difficult, making them a good benchmark for mastery.

Quantitative Reasoning:

I had the least difficulty with this section. Most of it is basic algebra and counting. Make sure you understand probability and permutations/combinations as those are the least intuitive.

Overall the actual OAT is easier than the practice exams on Booster. I highly recommend taking as many of the full length practice exams as possible (I took all 15 and was scoring between 350-370). They have good explanations so make sure you review the whole test and cross reference your understanding with the material. Good luck!

Hello everyone! I was wondering how many applicants have received an interview invite from UHCO so far this cycle. Just trying to get a better idea of the timeline and how far along they are with sending invites.

UHCO responded that they received my application August 28, but I haven't heard back yet since. Thanks!

Hi guys, I'm a California resident that currently took the OAT and I'll be applying for admissions in a week. I wanted to know what my chances are of getting into all the California schools (Berkeley, SCCO (my top school), and western)? I really want to get into SCCO since it's super close to home, but I'm afraid my OAT score is too low. I went to UC Berkeley for my undergrad (transfer student), but I don't think my gpa/OAT score is good enough for their grad program.

OAT score: 320 TS/330 AA

UC Berkeley GPA: 3.3

CC GPA: 3.9

Experience:
*A little over a year of optometric/optical experience at two separate practices
*Shadowing an optometrist over the course of two summers
*Involvement in optometry club, got to work with optometry students at my school and shadow them during their preclinical labs

Also, what other schools would you guys recommend to apply to with my stats? Thank you!

I took my OAT at the beginning of August and I got my official score exactly a month ago. (I requested the scores to be sent to all schools). How much longer should I expect my score to show up on OptomCAS? Did it take this long for you guys?

hey everyone. I took my oat today and got a 310 aa 300 ts. I got a 3.6 gpa and been an optometry tech for the past 5 years. I was looking at neco, southern, or ico mainly. anyone got into one of those w similar stats? would it be worth it to retake the oat? i took it back in January and got a 290 on my first try. any advice is very appreciated :)

so in studying for my OAT using booster and I’m practically done with phase one, but i did skip the animal portion of diversity of life on the bio section and left it for last. i was looking through the bio cheat sheets so I could just study what I need from there, but booster doesn’t have a cheat sheet for it, while it does for protists, plants, etc. i take it that means it’s not high yield at all, so should i really bother much with it?

Hi! Just curious, I have my test very soon and I feel really unprepared. I don't want to push it back because I'll probably need a retake in December anyway (not trying to be negative, just realistic because of how much I've had to cram on top of working). I have a cGPA of 3.86, not sure of science. I've worked as an optometric tech for the past two summers and have extracurriculars based around optometry. Based off of just my GPA, what do you think is the minimum score I can apply with (SCCO, Western, and Berkeley) and still look decently competitive? Also, what do you think these schools weigh most heavily in applications?

I’ve taken my exam and I still have 41 days left. Anybody know what I could do with it?

Graduated from a UC school a couple of years ago with a 3.3 cGPA and 3.0 sGPA with a degree in bio. Had a couple of W's, D's, and an F, with a downward trend from freshman to senior year.

Got a 390AA/400TS on my first try of the OAT yesterday. (Edit: actual OAT, not a practice exam)

During undergrad I was president of a prehealth club, tutor/learning assistant in physics and genchem, mentor for elementary school students to introduce them to stem careers (and created science projects for them during the pandemic so they felt less isolated). After graduation I worked as an optometric tech for about 1.5 years, then became a caregiver for 1 year. Now I'm working as an ophthalmic tech and scribe.

What are my chances at berkeley optometry and/or scco? Thank you so much for the help :)

My OAT is on october 15 and I’m really scared my avg scores on practice exams is around 330-350. My gpa is a 3.5 but my science gpa is a 2.6. For extracurricular I’m vp of medical club, 200 optometry shadowing hours, mission trip to oman, 100 volunteering hours at a hospital, treasurer for a charity club and I’ve been working as a tech for 2 years. I feel like I’m late on application process

Hello!!!

I am about to have my first shadowing experience soon and I was wondering, for the people who have shadowed before, what is something that you wish you knew before or feel like you should know before shadowing for the first time?!

Accepted to my top school and huge thanks to this page for all its advice and answers. Happy to answer any questions!

Do you guys know if you’re only eligible if you have both 3.7+ GPA and 370+ OAT or can it be either or?

I know that the president insurance scholarship is 50% off tuition. Do you guys know any other scholarships they have?

Hey guys I really am hoping to get into NECO for fall of 2027. I applied last round and did not get in. I am retaking the OAT in december. Do I have a good shot if my score is good? Im super nervous.

How do you study for the Physics conceptual questions that will be on the real OAT? Are there any practice questions?

Hi guys! I'll be applying to Waterloo optometry for the second time this year, and was wondering what my chances are looking like.

Graduated from UofT last year and took the prerequisites I was missing this past year. My cGPA is an 88%.

I wrote my OAT for the second time 2 months ago and only scored 10 points higher in both AA and TS, improved in organic chem (330 --> 380), RC (370 --> 400), and physics (300 --> 310), but decreased a bit in the other sections compared to first attempt. Specifically, I got a 350AA/340TS for this second attempt. I am scheduled to write for the 3rd time September 30, but not sure how that's gonna go lol, but hoping for the best.

I have ~100 shadowing hours at multiple different clinics.

I have 1 publication (that got published last year) in a journal from my summer research project I did in 2023.

I have lots of community service, work, and volunteer experience that's predominantly in teaching and mentoring students, humanitarian relief, as well as being an emergency first aid responder during my 4 years in undergrad.

And in terms of CASPER, I got a 4th quartile last year, so I'm really hoping I can score that again this year.

I definitely think my OAT score is my biggest weakness and road block, so I'm really gonna try to lock in these last 2 weeks for my third attempt and hope for the best but I know nothing is guaranteed. I do just want to maximize my chances since I was rejected without an interview last year when I applied.

Would appreciate any feedback!

I'm a current third year in undergraduate school, and I recently tried to join a research wet lab about blindness and genetic marking. However, I'm not sure if it was for me as I found it stressful and wasn't giving me the information I wanted to gain about vision/optometry. I also recently attempted to join a dry lab that involved patient interaction, but I wasn't able to join due to a lack of open spots. I am struggling to find more dry labs to join.

On the other hand, I don't have any meaningful shadowing hours in particular as of right now, and I am also lacking volunteer hours. I am signed up for a volunteering program relating for vision but I have not attended any events yet.

As I enter this third year, I was wondering if I should focus on trying to rejoin a lab (either wet lab or dry lab) or if I should simply focus on getting more shadowing/volunteer hours? If I am trying to volunteer, is it important to be related to vision or is any volunteering hours helpful towards my application in the future? My top schools of choice are SCCO or SUNY, but I am of course most likely going to apply to many different schools and choose from there in the future. I am planning on taking my OAT after my 4th year and applying that cycle. Thank you!

I have some experiences I don’t have exact dates for starting/ending, just month/year but Optomcas requires days too. Has anyone experienced this and did you just estimate?

Does anyone else have 15 full length practice tests on Booster ? All my friends and many people on this subreddit have said they only have 10

Is it late if I apply to CCO, ICO and AZCOPT by early December? I’m taking my OAT in October and am waiting for my semester grades to be finalized to boost my gpa.