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The Gold Standard OAT Prep Books are Not About Us

Gold Standard OAT Prep understands that OAT students do not often feel that someone is really thinking about their best interests. Often OAT books are really MCAT books in disguise. And what’s the story with all the DAT books? What is just for me???!

Here is part of the issue: Just a few thousand students take the OAT each year, as opposed to over 10 thousand students for the DAT, and over 60 thousand for the MCAT. As a result, it is very difficult to personalize an entire preparation program for OAT students. But, it’s not all that bad . . .

Fortunately, 3 of the 4 sections in the OAT are identical to the same DAT sections. Identical. The reason is that the group responsible for the OAT (ASCO) has given the responsibility of developing questions for the OAT to the organization responsible for the DAT (ADA). This means that for 3 OAT sections, your preparation is identical to what is required for the DAT. If there is any difference, it is in your favor. Generally, the scoring system for the OAT is more generous than for the DAT. So you need to know the same information, but to get the same score (relatively), you won’t need to retain as much. Of course, the 3 identical sections are: Natural Sciences (Biology, General and Organic Chemistry), Quantitative Reasoning (QR; math section) and Reading Comprehension (RC).

It terms of the 4th section (Physics), which is part of the OAT but not part of the DAT, some students use MCAT books. The content for OAT and MCAT Physics is about 80% the same but there are certainly different topics and emphasis for both exams. As simple examples: fluid dynamics is important for the MCAT because of blood vessels but it is not required for the OAT (although fluid statics is required); on the other hand, the equations for rotational motion and torques are important for the OAT whereas only torques are required for the MCAT. Also, the question types are very different: the OAT has discrete multiple choice questions and there are usually 5 answer choices per question, whereas the MCAT mostly has passage-based reasoning questions with 4 answer choices per question.

Gold Standard OAT’s Free Resources for OAT Students
OAT Scores for Optometry Schools
OAT Physics Equation List
Free OAT Practice Test (automatically includes a free OAT Question of the Day)
OAT Study Schedule

Keeping all this in mind, wow, have we put a package together for you! First, it all begins with our Gold Standard OAT Physics book. We start by specifically discussing the road to optometry school: how to raise your GPA, knowing the GPAs/OAT scores required, advice for the optometry school interview and much more. Then we deliver a Physics review specific to the OAT with hundreds of confidence building practice questions online with answers and great explanations. The book contains a full length exam which is always updated online for free.

What has Gold Standard OAT Prep assembled for the other 3 subjects? Well, how about using award-winning books for your comprehensive review of QR, RC and the natural sciences?


The Gold Standard DAT Complete 4-book Review was the winner of the 2013 USA Best Book Award in the Education/Academic Teaching category. Three of these “DAT” books thoroughly cover the material you need for the OAT with over 1000 pages in color with clear diagrams, illustrations and thousands of practice questions with helpful solutions. Over 2000 practice questions and growing.



For your Gold Standard OAT preparation, we have assembled books, videos, OAT practice tests and OAT smartphone apps. We opened dozens of hours of online science review videos from our MCAT library for OAT students at OATbooks.com. In particular, students have found our Organic Chemistry videos to be more helpful that the courses they attended at university!

We know the OAT is changing and we are ready. We have the updated QR practice materials so we can quickly adapt our online materials to keep our students prepared no matter when they purchased our books.

For more than 20 years, The Gold Standard MCAT has helped tens of thousands of students improve their chances of medical school admissions. Now we want to direct everything that we have learned about teaching to help you get accepted to optometry school. Let’s begin.