The OAT is a long exam covering four genuinely different subjects, and most lost points don't come from a real knowledge gap -- they come from a handful of recurring, avoidable mistakes. Here are six of the most common ones.
1. Treating Physics as an afterthought
Physics is worth roughly 17% of the sections this practice bank covers -- a full 40-question section, not a minor add-on. Many pre-optometry students haven't touched physics since an early intro course and under-budget review time for it as a result, even though it carries real, comparable weight to Reading Comprehension or Quantitative Reasoning.
Related: What to Expect on the OAT: Format, Scoring, and How to Prepare
2. Spreading review time evenly instead of matching real section weighting
Survey of the Natural Sciences makes up the largest share of the exam by question count, with Biology carrying the single largest individual share within it. Splitting study time evenly across every subject, rather than weighting toward these real proportions, often leaves the highest-value section under-prepared.
3. Forgetting the OAT's scoring scale is different from the DAT's
If you've researched the DAT alongside the OAT, don't assume the same target numbers apply -- the OAT is scored 200-400 per section, while the DAT uses a 200-600 scale. Check score expectations specifically for optometry schools, not dental schools, when setting your own target.
4. Losing easy points to careless Quantitative Reasoning errors
Even with a calculator provided, small errors -- misreading a word problem, an unsimplified fraction, a sign error -- cost real points that a moment's double-check would have caught. Build a habit of a quick sanity check on multi-step problems before moving to the next question.
5. Under-practicing Reading Comprehension because it "doesn't need studying"
The passages are dense and science-heavy, and the section's pacing -- about 72 seconds per question, shared with re-reading the passage -- is a skill that improves with real timed practice, not something you either have or don't naturally possess.
6. Not confirming application and scheduling details early
The OAT is administered essentially year-round at Prometric centers rather than on fixed national dates, which gives you real flexibility -- but it also means there's no "next available date" fallback if you wait too long to apply. Apply through ADA and schedule your specific Prometric appointment as soon as you have a realistic target date, rather than treating it as a last-minute step.