Normally, the OAT is designed to predict success in the first year of optometry school. As a result, it is a high-speed time-demanding exam. And, in order to place yourself in a favorable position for a decent result, you must absolutely employ the appropriate study skills.
You can only be fully confident and prepared for the OAT if you stick to a thorough study program. This post will emphasize the essential techniques for studying for the OAT in a month.
How to study for the OAT in a month
1. To begin, you must schedule enough study time.
A good study timetable can help you choose your unique study strategy and how much time you will devote to your studies. Though this will be largely determined by your priorities, a month for OAT exams will certainly be needed for adequate preparation.
And in order to accomplish so, you must create a decent study timetable to assist you with your studies. Your study program should contain enough hours to help you prepare. Also, you must be able to complete enough practice to feel comfortable with the OAT and its material.
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2. Set your goals.
With so much stuff to cover in a month, studying for the OAT might be intimidating at first. An effective strategy to acquire control over these constraints is to divide the subject into specific goals for each day and week of study.
Instead of attempting to pass the whole exam. The quantity of time and energy you devote to studying is determined by the nature of your goals. As a result, goal setting is an important element of the process since your success is dependent on it. Setting realistic and attainable goals should be considered. Someone may set a goal of increasing their cumulative score by points.
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This is OK, but it is not as logical as someone who just wants to learn how to recite the first twenty elements of the periodic table by Thursday. This is the ideal of a meaningful goal and is beneficial to have since it helps to break down learning and coping with challenging tasks into manageable chunks.
Set short-term objectives for the month you have left to study for your OAT, making sure they are reasonable. Setting short-term goals will pique your interest in attaining them as successfully and efficiently as possible, allowing you to make the most of your study time.
One of them is to constantly take notes when studying and practicing, whether with a tutor, an experienced instructor, or on your own.
3. Concentrate on crucial aspects
Because you only have a month left to study for the OAT, which is a short time, however, you must make the most of the time you have left, and in order to do so, you must first assess the areas of opportunity. These are topics that have been thoroughly vetted and are likely unfamiliar to you.
Then, using your results from your practice exam, figure out which areas you aren’t performing so well in, and which are vital to your OAT.
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4. Practice, evaluate, and monitor your progress.
Always make time in your schedule to complete your practice exam. Review the questions from your practice exam as well as the key points from your study notes.
If feasible, you should constantly try to be ahead of your schedule in order to cover new content or get insight into a subject as soon as possible. However, the best method to enhance your performance while you prepare for your OAT is to make time for review.
This will not only help you perform better, but it will also allow your brain to follow up on the information you have highlighted, which is a terrific method to remember things. It is quite difficult for the brain to recollect anything it sees just once, and it often seems that you have an idea while attempting to remember such information.
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This is because the information is lodged someplace in your brain that is tough to reach even on the day of your OAT. However, by practicing and rereading your notes and any specific information you jotted down when studying for the OAT.
It strengthens the connections you’ve previously established in your brain, which aids in the transfer of knowledge from short-term memory to long-term retention. And this is what you will need for a successful OAT.
Summary and key points
With the right amount of energy, is possible to have a fulfilling study for your OAT, though some tips have been highlighted above. Below are some additional tips to round it up.
- Consider customizing your studies to make them as successful as you want them to be.
- Plan your studies on a specified schedule that includes study blocks and breaks.
- Make the most of your study time by focusing first on areas of opportunity.
Finally, following the outlined stages above will ensure that you learn more in one month than attempting to cover the complete topic, which may be difficult given the time constraints.
Don’t overlook the significance of sticking to a strategy; this will guarantee you have an effective outcome while you study with your material to ace the OAT.
With so much work and preparation in your OAT, you should score well, particularly if it is your first time taking the exam. However, this will be determined by your dedication to your studies and the number of times you chose to study for your OAT.