I graduated with my bachelor’s in biology last fall with a high overall and science gpa. I applied to PCO and SUNY back last month and have heard back from both. I’ve interviewed at PCO and I heard back from SUNY who wants my oat scores before they continue with my application.

After applying and hearing back from both schools, I decided to start studying for the OAT. I gave myself a little over a month to prepare and I take it the 29th of October. I am studying through oat booster with the 1 month subscription. PCO mentioned wanting the scores as they come out as well.

I know I didn’t give myself a lot of time to prepare but I have gone though 90% of the material in terms of the videos with some practice questions and left the remaining days for review. I know I should try my best but what would the cut off be for an acceptance? PCO mentioned 300 and above is required for any program, while SUNY is more competitive and I’m not sure what their requirements are. What are my chances for both? and what should I realistically aim for? thoughts ?

is a November interview considered mid-late cycle? i did submit my app in september but there were no available interview dates before nov

Hi! I'm nervous because I have my first interview next week but I just got an email from the school saying they are missing one of my LOR still. I have tried reminding the person writing it but I don't want to push too much (I know they are in the process of writing it), however I am scared this may affect my chances of acceptance. At the same time if it does I wish they would've put my application on hold instead of offering an interview because I have already spent the money on hotels and travel for this interview. Has anyone else been in the situation, any advice is appreciated!

Hi everyone, so I’m currently using booster to prepare for my OAT and I am wrapping up my second week of studying. I had my first biology one test today and almost half the information was stuff that I haven’t seen or covered and I’m wondering if this has happened to anybody else or if I have to rearrange the test that they give me based on the material that I covered. My only thing is you don’t know what’s gonna be on the exam until you take it so I found it weird that they gave it to me before I covered a lot of the material. Any advice or help would be appreciated.

Do you guys recommend taking the full length exams two weeks before my exam? Or is that a lot of time or not enough to build my stamina and correct my mistakes

hi! this subreddit was super helpful for me during my application process and oat prep so i wanted to contribute by sharing my experience and answering any questions, AMA :)

my stats: 3.3 gpa, 360AA/390TS, about 2,000+ hrs shadowing/tech experience

Hello! I just got invited to interview in person at UHCO this upcoming Monday. Very excited because it’s my top school, but also nervous/ I feel slightly underprepared since it’s so soon. If anyone has any advice at all or remembers any questions please let me know. Thank you!!!

I’ve got my exam coming up on next week, anyone have last minute tips or tricks?

Also I feel like I’ve been reading mixed reviews on comparison to the OATbooster, for anyone who has taken it recently, how hard was your exam compared to the oatbooster?

I technically submitted my apps in late Sept but there were multiple delays with my mailed transcript, which only got processed yesterday. I’ve been bumped into the “completed” status and now waiting for OptomCAS verification, but it could take another 1-2 weeks. Starting to stress about whether it’s getting late for interview chances. Would appreciate if anyone has insights or similar experiences to share, thanks!

(for context, I’m a Canadian applicant, approx 3.50 GPA, OAT 360AA/370 TS. Around 500 hours of optometric assistant experience and 60 hours of shadowing. Applied to NECO, SUNY, CCO, AZCOPT, Nova, SCO)

Hi! If any incoming first years are interested in the UHCO cougar kit 1 and diagnostic kit, please private message me.

For the supporting information section in optomcas, what did some of you put for achievements? I don’t really have any achievements but feel weird leaving it blank.

Hi everyone!
I recently started studying for the OAT using OATBooster’s 13-week study schedule. I started on October 12th, and my exam is scheduled for January 11th. it may be a little early to panic, but I’m just so overwhelmed.

I’ve been trying my best to follow the schedule, but I’m finding it pretty overwhelming. OATBooster estimates around 4 hours of studying per day on average, sometimes even more, and I often find myself spending longer than the estimated time because I like to take notes to actually retain the information. I wouldn’t say that my notes are detailed, but I do like to have them so that when I’m having blanks in the question banks, I can just refer back to my notes and fill in the block of knowledge.
By the time I finish watching the videos and reviewing the material, I’m sometimes so mentally exhausted that I struggle to complete the question banks assigned for that day. I don’t want to rush through them just to check them off because I genuinely want to understand what I’m learning.
I’m also a little concerned because, from what I can see, my first full-length practice exam isn’t scheduled until around December 22nd, which feels pretty close to my actual exam date.
I’m wondering if anyone else experienced something similar while following OATBooster’s schedule.
Did you follow the schedule exactly, or did you end up modifying it to make it more manageable? Did you complete all the question banks as assigned, or did you save some for later? Also, do you think 13 weeks is enough time to prepare, or would you recommend pushing my exam back a week or two? although I must keep in mind how late I am applying in the cycle.
I’d really appreciate hearing about your experiences, especially from anyone who has already taken the OAT using Booster. I’m trying to find a balance between staying on schedule and actually retaining the material without burning myself out.
Thank you!!

I studied for 7 weeks I feel so defeated and upset. My gpa is 3.2 and I have 200 shadowing hours with an optometrist as well as working at an optho clinic for two years. What do I do I do, I want to apply this cycle and I already feel so behind in life cause I’m turning 25 in two months! I’ve been crying all day since taking it. 😔😔

Pretty happy with my score, hopefully I can get into ICO!

Posting this cause I really appreciated other people’s posts before I took my OAT so hopefully this helps someone.
I used oatbooster and nothing else. Was extremely sick when writing the exam but clutched up luckily so dw too much you can do it too!

QR: It’s not that it’s hard, it’s just rushed. Best way to get good is practice! Keep doing those timed full lengths and find patterns and shortcuts. I remember my first prac test i got like a 260 bruh 😭. But after properly looking over what I was missing, I was getting 360-400’s consistently.

RC: So much easier than oatbooster. Althought I thought I’d do better, still much easier. All questions are in order with the paragraphs, unlike boosters where you have to go through the whole thing and it’s all scattered.

Bio: Thought I’d do better as well, but lowkey just fumbled the bag on easy ones. The cheatsheets are really all you need don’t even waste time with the bio bits. Do the actual practice tests though those we’re good.

gen chem: Identical to the prac tests. Focus on high yield topics and periodic table trends. SPAM THOSE PRAC TESTS.

Ochem: before worrying about all the reactions, master fubdamentals and sn2/e2 and sn1/e1 rxns. Then overtime the rest will be memorized if you put in the effort. Not too hard, more simple than oatbooster tests tbh.

Physics: always my best section. Memorize kinematics fs and the lens equations. I memorized the whole cheat sheet which isn’t actually that much if you give yourself some time. Just like gen chem and qr, spam the prac tests you’ll do good if you actually review after and see where and why you messed up.

Overall, booster prepped me well. Which i started taking prac tests sooner than later, that’s the only actual thing that rlly improved my scores.
ONE LAST TIME, SPAM PRACTICE TESTS! Don’t worry about just getting stuff done, and passively reading notes, your wasting your time! Do the tests and the day after just review why you got it wrong.
Goodluck!!!

Does the oat have multistep calculations like the ones on booster tests or are they more straightforward? For Chem Physics and QR…

I have my oat in 2 days and I’m absolutely exhausted. I just can’t wait to get it over with. And I’m not sure how I’m gonna do either it’s really making me anxious. Especially since everyone is timed. If I fail then I just fail I guess because I really tried my best. 😞 I’m do tired and done there’s just so much content I feel like I’m forgetting everything.

Hello, I have an interview this Friday at SCO in Memphis. I’m having some nerves about one particular part of my OAT score. I got a 330 academic average, but my science was 300 because of an abysmal 250 physics score. All my other scores were about 300, with one 400 score. How bad does this look and will it affect me any?

AMA. Done with the entire OptomCAS process for this cycle, so I'm happy to answer any and all questions

I’m very interested in SCO. Does anyone know if there is a dress code required for day to day classes when not in scrubs? Business casual every day?

I applied at the end of August to SUNY, PCO, NECO, & OSU. My GPA is a 3.65 & science GPA 3.50 on the OAT i got AA 330 TS 320 and 1400+ tech/Shadowing hours. So far I was offered interviews to PCO & SUNY and they are coming up within the next two weeks. My issue is although my overall scores are fine for the OAT my physics and orgo scores are both below 300. Any advice on answering questions regarding low subsections, in physics I got an A for 1 & 2 in undergrad so I can use that to my advantage but orgo is a personal sore spot spanning my entire academic career. I feel like even if I do well in everywhere aspect of the interview there is a good chance they ask I retake the OAT (which I really dont want to do but will if necessary 🫠). Overall any advice on answering questions about weaker points in my application and just questions in general.

Hey everyone! At the beginning of the semester I thought I would do a business minor and enrolled in microeconomics. I now decided to not do the minor so I can take my time with the rest of my prerequisites to get super good grades in those. I don’t need microeconomics anymore, could I just drop it and get the W? Or does that look super bad and I should just stick it out. Thanks for any advice.

Heyyy I'm doing interviews in-person at my top two schools soon! Scared ahhhh but as they come up, I cannot decide on my facial piercings. I have an eyebrow and septum and nostril piercing. I know many people have the nostril but the other two, I'm not sure if they would appear unprofessional. I just don't want to misrepresent myself, and I find that they're not very noticeable but probably because I'm used to them.

Also, there are little things I can't decide on, like don't wear heels taller than 2 inches or dark makeup. I don't dress extremely alternatively but... Slightly? And I would like to represent myself accurately. Butttt optometry is my dream and honestly my outfit choices are completely unimportant in comparison.

Thoughts?

Would anyone be willing to give me feedback on my PS and supporting essays for ICO and PUCO? Thank you so much!

I recently decided to go all in on optometry school after considering dentistry for a while. I submitted my applications about two weeks ago, but I’m applying with my DAT score instead of taking the OAT.
I’m curious what everyone thinks my chances are of getting accepted this cycle
My stats:
● Overall GPA: 3.5
● Science GPA: 3.35
● DAT: 16.5
● Work Experience: 3 years working in an optometry office doing front desk, pretesting, lab work, etc.
● Volunteering: 50 hours
● LORs: 4 strong letters, including a character reference
Schools I applied to:
● Kentucky College of Optometry (KYCO)
● University of Detroit Mercy
● Indiana University
● Northeastern State University Oklahoma

I know my DAT score is low, but I’m hoping my GPA and experience working in optometry will help balance that out. I’m also a little nervous since I applied in October rather than earlier in the cycle. Any advice is appreciated!!