ADVICE NEEDED!! OAT vs. Kaplan

[royaleye2018]

Hi everyone,

I decided late into my college career that I wanted to become an Optometrist. I know I am very late in the cycle and my chances of getting offered a seat into the program are slim, but it's what I want, and I decided to give it a try. My OAT is in one week (Feb 8th). I have been studying since the beginning of January, going through Chad's videos (course saver) for everything and Feralis for Bio. I purchased the Kaplan book when I first decided to take the OAT, but never ended up using it to study. Being that my test is so soon, I figured that I would use this last week as practice, take the two Kaplan tests first and save the free ADA one for last. Yesterday I took my first Kaplan test, and these are my scores:

BIO: 270
GC: 240
OC: 230
PHYSICS: 260
RC: 280
QR: 260
TS/AA: 250/260

OMG... I feel so discouraged. I ran out of time on every single section. I didn't even get a chance to read the questions for the OC section, and I didn't realize there were 3 passages (completely my mistake) so I took longer thinking I only had to complete two...I never made it to the third passage. I made it through about half of everything else.

What should I do? I have to take it, because it is already so late in the cycle that I shouldn't postpone the test. At the very least, I was hoping to score 300 or above on the real thing.

I've read that Kaplan is notoriously harder, which I was expecting, but definitely didn't think this would be my outcome. Does anyone have any advice on what I should do in my final week?

Anything at all would be so appreciated!!!! Thank you

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[physicsblows]

You could always take the exam next week and see how you do. If you do well, you can apply. If not, you can take time to study for a retake and just apply for the next cycle. I don't know the deadlines for the schools you're trying to apply to, but you could also pay to postpone your exam if you feel like a bit of extra time would greatly affect your scores.
There's a practice ada OAT exam online. Take that if you haven't already since it's more representative of the actual exam.

 

[anonOD22]

I am in a similar situation. My exam was supposed to be feb 21st but I realized I wasn't ready so I postponed it to march 23. I know its late in the cycle but you should realize that you spent so much money just to take this exam so don't waste the time and the $400-500 you put into it. you are better off postponing it to get a better score than taking it knowing you won't do so well. If most of your schools are rolling admissions than that is fine, unless if you are aiming for a school with a specific deadline? For you specifically, since you are struggling with timing in the reading section that might be something you need to practice more with and it might take more than a week. I dont mean to be discouraging at all but give yourself a little bit more time so that you can at least ensure a good score!
BUT if you feel that you need to take it next week, just take a bunch of practice exams until you can atleast work on timing for the next week. and review as much material as you. if you wanna talk it out more feel free to message me!

 

[royaleye2018]

I ended up sticking with it because I’ve already applied to PCO and MCPHS. I know PCO has a March 31st deadline. MCPHS may not be until May but I’m unsure. Either way I will be taking it and if I don’t do well then I will retake and reapply next year.

I took the ADA OAT Practice Exam and scored 270TS/310AA. I still ran out of time but it was definitely better than the Kaplan test. Hoping that I can improve it on the real thing tomorrow morning, if not I will be retaking.

Thanks for the advice! Good luck to you.

 

[cldud]

Hey how was the OAT? Any good news?