Meet Deepali, a happy Bootcamp customer who recently conquered the OAT. I've asked Deepali to share her OAT experience with us as the Featured Student of December.
1. What is one piece of advice you would give to another student preparing to take the OAT?
My advice to everyone who is trying to conquer the OAT is to pace yourself. Take your time and take a LOT of breaks because rushing through and forcing yourself to complete a certain amount of hours of work will drain your energy. I made sure to have evening plans on most of my study days so I would have something to look forward to. I would take breaks in between to keep my energy level up and I definitely never overdid anything.
When you study, it is important to have stamina. The OAT is an exam that takes months to study for and you need to make sure you take care of your mental health! Go out once in a while and find ways to destress. If you push too hard, you could run out of energy before your exam.
For me, I found that the best way to keep myself calm and focused was to take one day at a time. I followed a checklist of things I wanted to complete each day and I never looked ahead of the next day. Thinking too far ahead worried me a lot because it was impossible to control anything and I would lose focus on what I could control at the moment. So, keep up your energy and take it one step at a time!
2. How did you use OAT Bootcamp to prepare for the OAT?
I followed Ari’s 60 day study schedule for the OAT Bootcamp. I did exactly what was assigned to me each day and as it got closer to my test date, I spent just a little extra time on my weaker subjects. When I started taking full practice exams, I took two days in between each one to keep my energy up. I was really worried about burning out right before my exam and not being able to focus and this helped me so much! When I did these practice tests, I made sure to spend a lot of time reading the explanations for my incorrect answers and that helped me a lot as well. I averaged around a 315 during my practice exams and ended up doing so much better on the real one. I would recommend OAT Bootcamp to every student who plans on taking the OAT because I do not think I would have done as well without it. It prepared me for the worst and I am so thankful for that.
3. What would you do differently to prepare for the OAT?
The only thing that I would have done differently to prepare for the OAT is to focus a lot more on organic chemistry. It was definitely my worst subject and I did not spend enough time on it to really improve myself. Since I don’t enjoy the subject in general, I avoided studying it so it ended up being my lowest score. Physics used to be my most difficult subject since I did not do a lot of practice questions but as I practiced more and more, my score increased drastically. It ended up being my second best subject. Focus on your most difficult subjects!
Get everything you need in one place. Start studying today for free.
