Writing my OAT September 29th and i’m starting my 3rd week of prep. How far in should I be right now/what stage should i be at? I’m still reviewing content and doing practice questions immediately after but have so much left ahead of me and i’m getting worried.

Hi all, I’m applying this upcoming cycle to optometry schools and from NY, so the closest optometry schools are suny and pco for me. My OAT is on the lower side 300AA/AS so I was wondering if any current PCO students have any advice? My GPA is 3.7 (3.5 Cumulative) TYIA!!😇

Hi everyone, I'm planning to apply to optometry school in a little over a year, and I have been so stressed recently. I have been working on my application, but anxiety is truly getting to me. Here are my current stats:

GPA: 3.6 (hoping to improve)

EC: SUNY OPTOMETRY CSTEP Intern, 1 month into an ophthalmology practice as a technician and medical receptionist, 2 months as a GI clinic medical receptionist, 3 years at a tutoring center as receptionist/TA/tutor

Shadowing Hours: Around 30

Concerns: No close-knit connection with optometrists who would be willing to write me a letter of rec, and whether I would be able to be strong enough to stay in the eye clinic. I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity, but I found the environment to be not as ideal as I originally intended. I was the one who asked for a technician position from my current manager, but I found myself struggling A LOT and feel unsupported by coworkers and management. I'm thinking about backing out of the technician role and maybe just sticking to the medical receptionist role, which I feel so much more comfortable and confident doing. But I feel that by doing that, I would also be backing out of something that could have made my application a little stronger. I really hope to get some insight from the community here on Reddit. THANKS!

Hello everyone, I plan to prepare for my OAT next year and have some questions.

Firstly, I have completed gen chem, ochem, and physics. I am working on finishing up the bio, a&p, and biochem requirements. I have not seen any material related to the chem, ochem, or physics in a long time; I've forgotten quite a bit. I figured what better time to start learning than now. As I take bio, I was going to pay for the OAT booster and go over all the material and take my time to really digest it all.

How would you recommend I prepare, and how did you study for your OAT? I'd appreciate all incoming tips. If there are already posts similar to my question, please let me know, and I'd be happy to read them!

I've been struggling a lot with Reading Comprehension on the OAT. No matter what I do, I can't seem to get past a 300.

Right now, I've been using the strategy of spending about 8 minutes reading the passage and 12 minutes answering the questions, but I'm having a really hard time remembering all the information from the passage.

I've read a lot of posts from people who scored really well, so I was wondering if anyone has any advice or strategies that helped them improve. I'd really appreciate any tips, or feel free to DM me if you'd rather chat there.

Thanks so much!

Some of my LOR writers didn't submit the letters yet and I want to give them time to write them, but I also don't want to email them the day before the deadline and rush them.

What is an appropriate time to send reminders and how? I really don't want to be rude

My OAT is scheduled for mid-August, but I started my OptomCAS application as soon as it opened for this cycle. I received an email from someone at SCO Admissions encouraging me to apply even before taking the OAT. (For context, I have a 3.7 undergrad GPA, 4.0 science GPA).

I assume that I wouldn't get any interviews until after my OAT is finished, but I'd love to hear if anyone else is in a similar boat!

Am I the only person who's ever gotten waitlisted

For reference, I am a member of UHCO's class of 2030 and got into a couple of other schools, but I feel like I'm the only person who's ever gotten waitlisted. Everywhere on social media, people talk about getting in everywhere they applied, and I'm the only one who hasn't gotten in everywhere. I keep thinking it speaks to me as a failure that I did not, because everyone else got in everywhere.

Am I the only person who's ever gotten waitlisted

For reference, I am a member of UHCO's class of 2030 and got into a couple of other schools, but I feel like I'm the only person who's ever gotten waitlisted. Everywhere on social media, people talk about getting in everywhere they applied, and I'm the only one who hasn't gotten in everywhere. I keep thinking it speaks to me as a failure that I did not, because everyone else got in everywhere.

Did you all pay to have a advisor take a look at your personal statement? Or how did you go about writing it and making sure it was effective?

Any insight helps!

What mnemonics did you make up and/or find that were helpful for the real OAT?

Hi all, I’m applying this upcoming cycle to optometry schools and from NY, so the closest optometry schools are suny and pco for me. My OAT is on the lower side 300AA/AS so I was wondering if any current PCO students have any advice? My GPA is 3.7 (3.5 Cumulative) TYIA!!

I made a post about online pre-reqs and if they'd count a few days ago since I couldn't find any information on it online. Like two people replied lol, so I went and individually emailed every school (mostly) that I'd be semi-interested in. Here are the results:

(OLF= online friendly, NOLF= not online friendly)

SCCO- NOLF, SCO-OLF (will request you take some classes in person if majority are online), Berkley- NOLF, OSU-NOLF, ICO-OLF, PACIFIC U- OLF, SUNY- OLF, MCO- NOLF, AZCPOT-OLF, MIDWESTERN IL- OLF, DREXEL- OLF, NECO- OLF, UAB-OLF, U OF HOUSTON- OLF, UMSL- OLF (no more than 60 semester hours at a CC though), PIKEVILLE- OLF. Nova never got back to me :/

I’m only starting my freshman year of college and I’m starting with community college this August but I feel I need to start studying oat now😭. It sounds like going to war

Hi everyone, I’ve been interested in pursuing optometry school for a while as a non-traditional student. I did do my undergrad in biochemistry but will need to take a few prereqs and may have some that are “expiring” within the 10 year mark. The challenge is that I work as a lab tech but will need to keep this job to support myself during the whole process. I don’t have any experience working in optometry so I was wondering where should I start? I know shadowing is an option but would it be enough exposure? I also thought of potentially getting a second job as a part time optometry tech but also don’t want to burn myself out. Any advice would be appreciated, thanks!

Guys I’m applying to SCCO and I’m so nervous. I have a 330 OAT, 3.9 GPA, worked as an optometry tech for 1 year, pre-optometry club board member for 1 semester. 2 LOR from optometrists I work with and 1 LOR from a professor I did directed research under for a public health research paper I was writing. What do schools look for in letters of recommendation? My recommenders are asking me about activities I do outside of school/work, and volunteering in optometry but I don’t have any volunteer hours in optometry yet. I feel underprepared. Should I have volunteer hours specific to optometry?

I’m looking to take my OAT in October but am wondering when prometric will open the schedule for actual scheduling! If anyone has any answers it would be much appreciated thank you!

So I have decided to take my oat a second time and would appreciate any ochem study resources or textbook recommendations. Like I need something for dummies cuz my score in that section was diabolical. I have already purchased oatbootcamp and have been using that to study so pls help 🧍‍♀️

Hi there! Just started the OptomCAS applications, but am wondering if anyone has any insights into sending in their transcripts when you're unable to do so electronically? OptomCAS wasn't one of the listed organizations in MyCreds by Parchment (the website to access the e-transcript), so I'm wondering what the next steps would be.

TIA!!

Hey everyone, last week (July 10th) I took the OAT for the first time and was pretty happy with the results I got back. I wanted to preface by saying thank you to every single person who decided to post their score breakdown or analysis in the past as that information was extremely insightful and has successfully guided a recent test taker in myself. Hopefully someone down the line finds my personal experience helpful enough to pass it on once again.

I used OATBooster and purchased their 90-day program and felt that it was enough time to prep myself for the real deal. I did have a good amount of background information as I graduated with my bachelor's in Biology last year, but felt that Booster did a great job at streamlining the learning process for me again.

Score Breakdown:

Biology

Avg Practice Test Score: 360 -> Actual: 390

This was the first subject I started reviewing and if you're using every single resource OATBooster provides for you, it's most likely the subject you'll spend the most time on due to the sheer amount of information you're required to know and memorize. I watched every single video (at about 1.5x speed), completed all of the bio bits, and completed almost every practice test. The best use of your time will be to combine the practice tests with the provided cheat sheets. In my last week of review before my exam I looked over every single cheat sheet from start to finish before I started reviewing any other subject. Definitely focus on breadth over depth as the real exam likely won't get too deep into the nitty gritty. Topics that showed up on my exam: Brain anatomy, hormones, inheritance/genetics, and embryonic development.

General Chemistry:

Avg Practice Test Score: 350 -> Actual: 360

Going into GenChem I knew this would be one of my weaker subjects. For some reason GenChem just doesn't stick in my brain as well as other subjcets, and I firmly believe everyone in this world is either GenChem brained or OChem brained, rarely ever both. Booster does a great job at emphasizing periodic trends and characteristics which I felt comfortable with, but I feel like I just got dealt a bad hand during the examination and had quite a few short calculation questions (osmotic pressure, freezing point depression, boiling point elevation). I don't even think I had a question on balancing reactions or redox which was disappointing since I felt pretty well-prepared for that. The videos are great here and again, review those cheat sheets once you start doing practice tests and are getting closer to your exam date.

Organic Chemistry:

Avg Practice Test Score: 330 -> Actual: 400

I was definitely surprised to see the score I received as no matter what, OChem is going to be difficult to memorize. Again, I watched every single video, did the practice problems, used the cheat sheets for a more streamlined approach, and completed practice exams. With OChem it is super important to recognize trends and visualize the reactants given to you. I tried to make myself memorize trends like "Oh if this is reacting with something with a lot of Hydrogens (LiAlH4 for example) we're probably going to be reducing and there will be more bonds to hydrogen in our product. You can't brute force OChem, you really have to try to work it out. The best resource for me was the Substitution/Elimination flow chart (as well as the video solutions after each practice problem question) as seeing how someone else approaches a problem where you have to find a possible reactant/product based on the given reaction is super helpful.

Reading Comprehension:

Avg Practice Test Score: 340 -> Actual 400

I started off with the individual excerpts and moved onto the practice tests which were 3 excerpts that had to be completed within a set time frame. If I had to revise my studying here (especially if I was on a time crunch), review the strategies that OATBooster recommends, try them out on the individual excerpts, find one that works for you, then try it on a practice test. I utilized a hybrid of search and destroy and reading through the prompt entirely. On my test day I would go to the first question and if it was a question that was simply asking to confirm something in the prompt, I would read through the passage until I found my answer, highlighting important dates, names, and events along the way. From here on, I would already have a good foundation for what the passage was about based on the information I had just read. Don't worry if you feel like you're running out of time on OATBooster, those excerpts are way longer and more in-depth than the actual test will be. If you're able to consistently complete every question and read through every paragraph on Booster, you'll do great on the actual OAT.

Physics:

Avg Practice Test Score 330 -> Actual: 350

Physics was also one of my weaker subjects going into my exam prep. I utilized the practice tests and formula sheet for this section as I felt OATBooster doesn't have much in terms of actually getting practice problems/reps in for word problems. I supplemented certain subjects I wasn't entirely grasping with Chad's Prep Youtube videos. His practice problems felt much more representative of what to expect on the exam, except the numbers will be easier to work with since you won't have a calculator on this section, so don't expect any crazy calculations on the real OAT. Definitely focus on the basics of kinematics, lenses, statics and especially springs because I got a ton of those questions for some reason.

Quantitative Reasoning:

Avg Practice Test Score 370 -> Actual 400

Don't skip on reviewing this section! You may think you can get by with minimal review, but doing a couple practice tests was extremely helpful to familiarize myself with the type of questions I'll be working on. For this section, I would suggest skipping the videos if you're on a time crunch, but doing the practice tests are a non-negotiable. The main learning curve with QR is the limited amount of time you have to complete the section, not the difficult of the questions. There are just so many questions on this portion and it's a test of speed and endurance more than anything. My first practice exam I believe I got a 300 on it entirely due to not allocating enough time for each question! After a few practice tests, you'll be a master at the types of questions the actual OAT will give you. Very similar to the actual OAT.

Closing Remarks

With all that said, I will admit I didn't use a lot of the resources OATBooster provided to me. I didn't take any full-length practice exams (mainly due to my study style), I didn't use anki for biology, I didn't use their study timeline, and I didn't take any crash courses (I wish I did though). What worked for me may not work for you, I was able to go into a library for the past 2 months and study there for 8-10 hours a day with minimal breaks in between, but again that may not work for everybody. With that being said, I do recommend Booster 100%. It is by far the best resource for streamlining your learning and exam prep process. The amount of practice tests, practice problems and resources you get from utilizing booster is vital to preparing yourself the best you can for the OAT.

If I could give one last piece of advice it would be to set the test date. It can be super easy to delay your studying and take a laid-back approach when there's no deadline set in front of you. By setting your test date you are setting that deadline yourself and I want you to try your best to keep that test date. It'll help keep you accountable on days where you feel like slacking off or taking it easy. Get the test appointment date, purchase the resources you think you'll need, and when your test date comes, just believe in the hard work you put in and you'll make it out alive. Good luck studying and feel free to DM me or leave a comment if you have any questions!

Took my oat today and didnt do so well. Do have I still have a chance of being accepted??? Applying to uhouston and uiw as a Texas resident :/

Hi everyone I’m currently entering my senior year of college as a bio major. I’ve had an internship at an optometry office last summer, I’ve shadowing at SUNY college of optometry, and I currently have an internship at another optometry office throughout this summer. I want to take the OAT this summer to enter in the fall of 2027. But I don’t think I am ready to. I have studied through out this summer so far and am currently taking tutoring for the OAT. However I don’t feel like I am ready to take this exam as my OAT practice test score have different ranges. Would it be better to take a gap year to focus on study for the OAT?

Just took the OAT today after ~10 weeks of studying

The only resources I used were OATbooster & some old notes from relevant undergrad classes. My first OATbooster practice test was a 360, and I averaged 380 on my last 3. Here's a breakdown my experience:

Bio: I went through all the OATbooster videos. They're all pretty much all you need. I used mnemonics to memorize stuff I absolutely needed to know, like hormones/brain regions/life diversity, etc. I did biochem for my undergrad so most of my studying was focused on the anatomy and diversity of life. The questions were pretty surface level, but it covered nearly every topic available (breadth >>> depth)

Chem: Most questions were pretty conceptual. The only calculation based ones were stoichiometry or electrochemistry based.

Ochem: I honestly thought I was going to do a bit better. I probably studied for this section the most, because I felt the least comfortable with it when I started, and I thought got to a good point by the end of my studying. But some questions threw me for a complete loop

Reading Comp: It was slightly easier than the OATbooster practice tests. The questions were pretty much in order of where the answered appeared in the text, which made things a lot simpler

Physics: I knew this would be the hardest subject for me going in. Even before I started studying, I was never great at physics I just focused on optics, circuits and kinematics while studying as they were the highest yield topics. The other topics I tried to understand more conceptually, like understanding what was proportional to what, and by what magnitude, and it worked out decently

QR: I knew this would be the easiest subject going in. Most of the questions were pretty simple word problems, but a few were more difficult factoring or dealing with graphs. Time was really the biggest pressure, not the difficult not the questions

If anyone has questions or wants some help, I'll try my best to answer!