- Joined
- Jul 29, 2015
- Messages
- 6
- Reaction score
- 4
Hey everyone, I've been lurking around on SDN the past few months while OAT studying and just took my exam today so I figured I should pay it forward and provide everyone with another insight onto how the test was. For background, I was a Medical Laboratory Sciences major in my undergrad (I work in the lab in a hospital and process/troubleshoot/report out patient specimens) and studied on and off for the OAT for just over 2 months. I have never taken a college physics course so everything I know right now I self taught through free internet material and a cheap $5 physics textbook from amazon. I also purchased used (and very cheap) biology, gen chem, orgo, and 2 older Kaplan OAT practice books from amazon as well for about $5 each.
The studying:
Since I work a full time 2nd shift job there would be some days I studied a few hours a day or none at all. First thing I did was take a practice exam in my Kaplan book and I absolutely bombed Orgo and Physics (no surprise there) and my AA was a 290 which I knew I could improve. I studied every physics practice problem I could get my hands on and tried my best to understand concepts. Mirrors and circuitry/resistance/electricity in general still confuse and they show up a lot on the exam so I would make sure you have those down. For bio my undergrad major really came through for me as I've already taken Clinical Chemistry, Microbiology, and Hematology courses so I had a strong background in anatomy, disease states, and hormone production in the body. I took gen chem my freshman year of college and a decent amount of stoichiometry came back to me quickly however I still studied a lot of practice questions and memorized every periodic trend I could find (almost all of them showed up on my exam). Orgo is not my strong suit, I came name a compound fine but ask me to write out/understand a reaction and my brain says nah no way. I did the best I could and looked over the "simpler" reactions like Sn1, Sn2, E1, E2, stability, melting and boiling points, and in general tried to understand if something got added to a molecule where it was most likely to end up. Reading Comprehension I did 1 practice on, I knew I could do well if I just sat down and read the section I just felt like I never had the time to do it for practice (I'm more of a do better under pressure kind of guy).
The exam:
Got to the test site an hour early since I took something similar for my MLS national certification and figured they would let me start somewhat early after chugging a mountain dew voltage (my wake up drink of choice) and a quick bite to eat. They let me in half an hour early and did the whole run down of when I get a break and how I had to turn my pockets inside out every time I left/came back into the room (pro tip, don't wear shorts with 6 pockets). I did the brief tutorial to calm my shivering/nervous hands and worked my way up to starting the natural sciences section.
The Sciences-Bio
Biology, like everyone else has said, is a real scattershot. I studied literally thousands of pieces of information across all of my old biology classes, the big book I bought, Kaplan, the ADA practice OAT, and there were still around 4 questions I've never even heard of before. Being familiar with human embryo development, pedigrees, cell/organelle functions, and hormones are good ways to net some easy points. Not too many plant things either which I know some people are worried about.
The Sciences-Gen Chem
More concepts than problems, but almost an even split. I failed to memorize all equations for gases and some rate constant things however I was able to muddle my way through questions with logic/narrowing down the choices. Equations like PV=nRT, C1V1=C2V2, rate expressions, an equation for how to figure out how much ice melts when you add x amount of hot water to it, and all other gas equations I don't know are your friends here.
The Sciences-Orgo
More reactions than I had anticipated after reading other people's reactions from the exam but I guess that can't be helped. As I mentioned in the first paragraph all the things that I studied showed up on here, I know saying "know everything" isn't helpful when helping to guide your studying, but it's the philosophy I would use. Many different kinds of equations and concepts came up here and some I can't even mention because I genuinely don't know the material at all.
Reading Comprehension:
Holy long essays. Every time I scrolled down the page to get to the end I kept finding more paragraphs and the time went way too fast at first. I eventually found my rhythm of reading every 1 out of 5 words and if the concept of the sentence seemed important, I highlighted it along with every name, , date, proper noun, definition, and first line of every paragraph. I ended the section with 10 minutes to spare and had no desire to go back and check everything, so on I went.
Physics:
My kryptonite. I took a general physics freshman year of high school and here I am 8 years later being asked all about electricity, mirrors, and almost everything I never learned about while playing with springs and dropping apples off tables. Even simple questions like "what units are joules in" I had no idea, that's how much physics I don't know. My advice here is know the units for everything, know mirrors and electrical resistance inside and out, and then be prepared for a lot of box related questions like "if a box is being pushed up an incline plane at 4m/s what's the PE when it stops" or "a box is hanging from a rope with tension x, if you do this random thing to it nobody outside of a physics lab what's the tension now?"
Quantitative Reasoning:
My jam. Ever since I was a kid I've loved using logic and reasoning to solve my problems, even if it's not the right way to do it. About half of my college career was spent not learning the "proper" formulas and reasons for things because I came up with a logical, more simple way to do it in my head. My first ever practice test I scored 350ish and I got my hands on every single problem I could in order to be ready for anything. I think the Kaplan practice books I got and the ADA practice exam were very good in terms of letting you see diverse types of questions and ways to handle different problems quickly. Trig functions like sin, cos, tan, I didn't study at all since they give me PTSD from my AP Calculus days so I suffered through a few of those but otherwise if you can't figure out a question in 1.5 minutes, skip it or just guess. It's not worth putting yourself through the mental pain.
The results:
So after freezing in that room for about 3.5 hours I finished the test and shot through the survey at the end in order to get my scores. For perspective, 2 months ago on Kaplan practice exams I was scoring back to back 290s and on the ADA practice test I took (1-2 weeks ago) my score was either a 330 or 340.
QR-390
RC-350
BIO-360
GC-330
OC-310
P-290
TS-320
AA-340
So as you can see orgo and physics weren't my friends but I knew that walking into the exam. I was aiming for a 310 and before I pressed that final button I was already planning for when I was going to take the exam again because I thought I did so poorly. Don't freak out about this exam at all, with a proper study schedule there's no reason why you can't get the score you dream of. For study tools I highly recommend the Kaplan practice books, I think I got the 2009, 2010 editions and they have a wide variety of content for a pretty low cost. Kaplan also offers free practice OATs on their website about once a month that simulate the actual test experience very well. I've heard Chad's Videos are worth the price to subscribe to them however I couldn't justify buying them with my hectic schedule. Khan Academy has fantastic free instructional videos available that helped me a lot with physics and orgo concepts so that's a great resource too. Whenever you take your exam, I suggest taking the ADA practice test 1-2 weeks beforehand to see where you stand with that as it's a pretty good estimation of where you will score. If anyone has any questions/comments/detail requests about anything feel free to PM me or ask it here for everyone else to see too. Thanks to everyone on here who shared their stories as well and I hope to see everyone in school soon!
The studying:
Since I work a full time 2nd shift job there would be some days I studied a few hours a day or none at all. First thing I did was take a practice exam in my Kaplan book and I absolutely bombed Orgo and Physics (no surprise there) and my AA was a 290 which I knew I could improve. I studied every physics practice problem I could get my hands on and tried my best to understand concepts. Mirrors and circuitry/resistance/electricity in general still confuse and they show up a lot on the exam so I would make sure you have those down. For bio my undergrad major really came through for me as I've already taken Clinical Chemistry, Microbiology, and Hematology courses so I had a strong background in anatomy, disease states, and hormone production in the body. I took gen chem my freshman year of college and a decent amount of stoichiometry came back to me quickly however I still studied a lot of practice questions and memorized every periodic trend I could find (almost all of them showed up on my exam). Orgo is not my strong suit, I came name a compound fine but ask me to write out/understand a reaction and my brain says nah no way. I did the best I could and looked over the "simpler" reactions like Sn1, Sn2, E1, E2, stability, melting and boiling points, and in general tried to understand if something got added to a molecule where it was most likely to end up. Reading Comprehension I did 1 practice on, I knew I could do well if I just sat down and read the section I just felt like I never had the time to do it for practice (I'm more of a do better under pressure kind of guy).
The exam:
Got to the test site an hour early since I took something similar for my MLS national certification and figured they would let me start somewhat early after chugging a mountain dew voltage (my wake up drink of choice) and a quick bite to eat. They let me in half an hour early and did the whole run down of when I get a break and how I had to turn my pockets inside out every time I left/came back into the room (pro tip, don't wear shorts with 6 pockets). I did the brief tutorial to calm my shivering/nervous hands and worked my way up to starting the natural sciences section.
The Sciences-Bio
Biology, like everyone else has said, is a real scattershot. I studied literally thousands of pieces of information across all of my old biology classes, the big book I bought, Kaplan, the ADA practice OAT, and there were still around 4 questions I've never even heard of before. Being familiar with human embryo development, pedigrees, cell/organelle functions, and hormones are good ways to net some easy points. Not too many plant things either which I know some people are worried about.
The Sciences-Gen Chem
More concepts than problems, but almost an even split. I failed to memorize all equations for gases and some rate constant things however I was able to muddle my way through questions with logic/narrowing down the choices. Equations like PV=nRT, C1V1=C2V2, rate expressions, an equation for how to figure out how much ice melts when you add x amount of hot water to it, and all other gas equations I don't know are your friends here.
The Sciences-Orgo
More reactions than I had anticipated after reading other people's reactions from the exam but I guess that can't be helped. As I mentioned in the first paragraph all the things that I studied showed up on here, I know saying "know everything" isn't helpful when helping to guide your studying, but it's the philosophy I would use. Many different kinds of equations and concepts came up here and some I can't even mention because I genuinely don't know the material at all.
Reading Comprehension:
Holy long essays. Every time I scrolled down the page to get to the end I kept finding more paragraphs and the time went way too fast at first. I eventually found my rhythm of reading every 1 out of 5 words and if the concept of the sentence seemed important, I highlighted it along with every name, , date, proper noun, definition, and first line of every paragraph. I ended the section with 10 minutes to spare and had no desire to go back and check everything, so on I went.
Physics:
My kryptonite. I took a general physics freshman year of high school and here I am 8 years later being asked all about electricity, mirrors, and almost everything I never learned about while playing with springs and dropping apples off tables. Even simple questions like "what units are joules in" I had no idea, that's how much physics I don't know. My advice here is know the units for everything, know mirrors and electrical resistance inside and out, and then be prepared for a lot of box related questions like "if a box is being pushed up an incline plane at 4m/s what's the PE when it stops" or "a box is hanging from a rope with tension x, if you do this random thing to it nobody outside of a physics lab what's the tension now?"
Quantitative Reasoning:
My jam. Ever since I was a kid I've loved using logic and reasoning to solve my problems, even if it's not the right way to do it. About half of my college career was spent not learning the "proper" formulas and reasons for things because I came up with a logical, more simple way to do it in my head. My first ever practice test I scored 350ish and I got my hands on every single problem I could in order to be ready for anything. I think the Kaplan practice books I got and the ADA practice exam were very good in terms of letting you see diverse types of questions and ways to handle different problems quickly. Trig functions like sin, cos, tan, I didn't study at all since they give me PTSD from my AP Calculus days so I suffered through a few of those but otherwise if you can't figure out a question in 1.5 minutes, skip it or just guess. It's not worth putting yourself through the mental pain.
The results:
So after freezing in that room for about 3.5 hours I finished the test and shot through the survey at the end in order to get my scores. For perspective, 2 months ago on Kaplan practice exams I was scoring back to back 290s and on the ADA practice test I took (1-2 weeks ago) my score was either a 330 or 340.
QR-390
RC-350
BIO-360
GC-330
OC-310
P-290
TS-320
AA-340
So as you can see orgo and physics weren't my friends but I knew that walking into the exam. I was aiming for a 310 and before I pressed that final button I was already planning for when I was going to take the exam again because I thought I did so poorly. Don't freak out about this exam at all, with a proper study schedule there's no reason why you can't get the score you dream of. For study tools I highly recommend the Kaplan practice books, I think I got the 2009, 2010 editions and they have a wide variety of content for a pretty low cost. Kaplan also offers free practice OATs on their website about once a month that simulate the actual test experience very well. I've heard Chad's Videos are worth the price to subscribe to them however I couldn't justify buying them with my hectic schedule. Khan Academy has fantastic free instructional videos available that helped me a lot with physics and orgo concepts so that's a great resource too. Whenever you take your exam, I suggest taking the ADA practice test 1-2 weeks beforehand to see where you stand with that as it's a pretty good estimation of where you will score. If anyone has any questions/comments/detail requests about anything feel free to PM me or ask it here for everyone else to see too. Thanks to everyone on here who shared their stories as well and I hope to see everyone in school soon!
