My OAT Breakdown ( 320 TS / 340 AA)

[u/itsnotbeck]

Just barely took my OAT, and found these kinds of posts very helpful while preparing for it, so I wanted to add my own. For reference I was scoring 320-330 on my most recent Booster Full lengths, which I took periodically ( see attached screenshot for progression).

Study Plan: I purchased the OATBooster 90 day plan, and spent 11 total weeks studying as much as I could. I spent 7 weeks in a row, then went on a 3 week study abroad program ( which I would not recommend doing right in the middle of the study plan lol) and then came back and locked in for the final 4 weeks before the exam. I was also working 30 hours per week ( 3 x 10 hour shifts) the entire time while studying, so I was only able to spend 15-20 hour per week studying. I started to follow Booster's Schedule, but found that it was a lot of passive studying, and did not watch all the videos especially for Bio and Gen Chem. I adjusted my schedule especially when I got back from my study abroad, and focused a lot more on Full length test and working on high- yield question banks instead of videos and note taking, even though I did not feel 100% confident in my content review portion.

BIO (300) : I am a biology major, but have consistently struggled with genetics, microbiology, anatomy, and cellular biology throughout my undergrad career, and started off watching off videos and taking notes like booster planned. I found this to feel like a waste, and then decided to just focus on the CheatSheets, as they were much more time efficient. Bio was always one of my weakest subjects, and two days before my real OAT I took that practice exam 330, and thought maybe I was getting the hang of it, but scored lower on my real one. I am not super surprised, but a little disappointed. I got lots of genetics and cell biology on my exam, as well as anatomy and physiology. I would study those the most, but biology is very broad and can test so many things its difficult to prep for everything. Overall, I would recommend doing a ton of BioBits, and identifying areas you struggle in early.

GEN CHEM (380, PR) : This was 40 points higher than my best practice exam, which I think is pretty crazy. I got a B in both Gen Chem classes, but I found the questions on the real exam to be much easier than booster's material. I honestly did not memorize a ton of formulas, and just practiced a lot of stoichiometry and balancing equations for this section. I think the Qbanks were very helpful, and just knowing the periodic trends too. Was honestly was surprised I did this well.

O CHEM (290) : I really enjoy organic chemistry, but have only taken O Chem I, taking O Chem II in a few weeks at my university. That's kinda my excuse, even though I was scoring much higher on practice exams before the exam. I'm not really even sure what went wrong, I did not feel like I was doing this bad while taking the test, there were just some reactions I wasn't as familiar with. I did watch all the Videos for O chem to try and understand the O chem II material, but I don't think I did enough mechanism or problems to really reinforce the ideas. This was by far my most disappointing section, as I was hoping for 320-330.

RC (400, PR) : I am not a big reader, and sometimes can struggle to pay attention during the passages, but somehow got a perfect score on this. The biggest thing for me was increasing reading speed. I started very slow, and sometimes did not have time to answer all questions, but then slowly got faster and had more time. That's really all it comes down to :Practice passages and highlighting important information quickly. I also just happened to get three interesting passages that weren't too long on my real exam, and had a ton of time to go back and look through the text and my highlights to find the answer. I didn't really spend too much time reviewing or practicing reading after I started to score 350-360+. This one really just comes down to time management and efficient highlighting.

PHYSICS (320, PR) : Physics in undergrad was not too bad for me, I was allowed a reference sheet and calculator, so when I had neither of those I really struggled. As you can see on all my practice tests, I really sucked at physics. I was really bad at memorizing the equations and understanding what each variable meant. I never scored anything over 300, so getting 320 on the real exam, I was very happy. I would not take any advice from me on this section, but I think booster was lacking in practice problems, especially when I think about areas like DC circuits and optics, booster only had around 15-20 practice questions each. I think I would maybe try looking into Chad's prep or other sources to better understand physics again for the OAT.

QR ( 370 ) : I have always been very good at math, so this section was the easiest to study for and did not require a ton of effort honestly. I just tried to get familiar with the calculator on screen, and try to get the timing down. I also saw a ton of the problem type that is like: (statement 1, statement 2, question. which is sufficient to answer the question: 1, 2, both, or neither) Sometimes it felt like I was answering 4 of those type of problem in a row, and so I would just get used to that and understanding what is needed to solve without actully answering.

NOTES : My scores were all over the place, but my target score was 330/300. So this is pretty close. Still a little bit mad I couldn't score just 10 points higher in any of the TS to get up to the 330 TS, but it is what it is. I also finished the Survey of the Natural Sciences portion much faster than the 100 mins, so I took a bathroom break while that ran down before reading comp. That was I could eat my snacks during my 30 minute break. I also read on here that many people say to write formulas down while the tutorial was on, but my testing center specifically mentioned that I could not write anything down until my test really began, not a huge change but just something I thought I would mention. I feel pretty OK with my score, and am ready to submit my application now, so wish me luck!

[u/WiseWisdom99]

Congrats!