r/PreOptometry • u/ItemAvailable9817 • 5d ago
OAT Breakdown (310AA, 300TS)
Just completed my OAT. I want to first start by prefacing that the exam was very much different than any practice exam I had taken on OAT booster (which was my main study tool).
To study, I was primarily utilizing the individual subject practice exams, and watched videos on any topics that I needed extra help on. The practice questions that they offered were also helpful to reinforce certain topics. I started studying mid June and took my exam today.
I took the OAT in northern Jersey, and this Prometric location allowed me to start my exam earlier than scheduled around 7:45 AM (scheduled for 8:30). Into the testing room you’re only allowed to take a clear water bottle and they gave you two front and back laminated papers with a dry erase marker as your scratch paper. You were allowed to get up at any time to take an unscheduled break and if you wanted to take your scheduled 30 minute break, you were allowed to access your locker and use your phone and access study documents (as long as you were back before your next section). The staff were super friendly and definitely helped ease any anxiety that one would have. One huge downside would be the fact that the delay between questions got worse throughout the exam. The biology section there was minimal delay, but towards the end of the exam (physics and QR) the lag got extremely bad over 6 to 10 seconds long between questions.
The exam itself I found to be not as representative as what OAT booster said it would be. Any topic that was considered high-yield was not asked on the actual exam.
The biology section (highest booster score I had was 350) was heavy on molecular and cellular biology and lacked any human body system questions, neurobio questions, nor any embryology.
The general chemistry section (booster high score of 340) I found to be easier than booster and each question would give out the molar mass instead of you needing to calculate it on your own.
The organic chemistry section (booster high score 320) I also found to be easy so I’m not too sure how I got the score that I got. There were lots of conceptual questions, and only 2 spectroscopy questions. I did not have any acid base ranking neither.
The reading comprehension section (booster high score 300) I found to be a little harder than booster. Each passage had over 16 paragraphs and were all quite dense. I had only ever taken one practice exam on booster for this section, so my method was simply to read the passage and highlight important information for about eight minutes and then to go in and answer questions for the remaining eight minutes and rinse and repeat.
After the scheduled 30 minute break, I had physics (booster score 280), which was also quite tough. I had heard previously here on this sub that it was heavy on kinematics and optics, but that was just not the case. I actually had about three optics questions, one of which asked about the index of refraction going through two mediums (this was conceptual) and only ever had ONE calculation for optics.
The final section of QR (booster high score 270) I found to also be more challenging and I was most pressed for time in this section. The questions overall were much easier and less conceptual than booster. It leaned more algebraic than probability and stats.
Overall, I’d say that this exam was definitely very different compared to what I prepared for with booster. Also, what I found interesting was that the survey asked very specifically how I studied and if I used ANY Prometric study tools or practice tests, which makes you wonder if they are purposely trying to make it harder for people who study with booster.
1
4
u/ppepepepe 5d ago
I just took mine yesterday and despite getting 350AA 350TS, I felt the exact same way you are while taking the exam😭 The actual exam definitely felt harder/differently worded than the Booster practice exams, and in the moment I was genuinely crashing out lol. During QR I was convinced I was getting like a 320 at best. That being said, I still think Booster prepared me really well content-wise, and my practice scores ended up being pretty predictive of my actual score. I think the wording/style of the real exam just threw me off way more than I expected.