PREPARE FOR THE OAT AND GET INTO THE SCHOOL OF YOUR CHOICE
Ever since you were a kid, you’ve had to take
standardized tests to assess your aptitude in basic areas, and the
OAT is just one more of them. You had the SAT practice tests in
elementary school, the real SATs in high school, and then plenty
of other tests throughout your undergraduate years. And it’s
not over yet. To get into an optometry school, you must take the
Optometry Admission Test, or OAT. What’s more, you don’t
just have to take it: You have to do well on it.
There are 16 optometry colleges in the United States,
with one more in Puerto Rico and two in Canada. All of these require
the OAT before they’ll even consider your application for
admission. A score of about 300 is usually good enough to get you
an interview, and 320 or more will make you very appealing to the
colleges. Of course, you can sometimes get admitted with a lower
OAT score, if you have a high GPA, good letters of recommendation,
and other qualifications. But it will be an uphill battle. A good
showing on the OAT is a fast way to show the college that you’re
qualified and bright.
But first, let’s take a better look at what you’re getting yourself
into.
What Is The OAT?
The OAT covers math, basic science, English and
reading comprehension skills. For the most part, the knowledge you
gain from taking those courses during your undergraduate pre-optometry
years should be sufficient. But since the OAT is so important, and
since you must take it seriously if you are to be admitted to an
optometry college, you should avail yourself of some of the OAT
study guides available, too. The OAT review materials will have
sample questions from the test, to give you an idea of what type
of things they’ll be asking you.
Now that you know what the OAT is…what next?
The OAT is far more convenient to take than
the MCAT (for medical students) or the LSAT (for law students).
The most recent innovation is that now you can take the OAT online,
which means you can do it pretty much any time, anywhere. If you
prefer, you can go to a testing facility to take it in person; that’s
available most days, too. You can take the test as many times as
you like, but you must wait 90 days between tests, and only your
four last scores are actually sent to the schools. Most schools
advise not taking it more than twice anyway, as at that point you
start to look desperate. Better to prepare well and take the OAT
once, getting a solid score and bettering your chances of getting
into the optometry college of your choice. |
