OAT Booster Review

Article Outline & Table of Contents

• How The OAT Booster Program Works
• OAT Booster Price
• OAT Booster Strengths 📈
• OAT Booster Weaknesses 📉
• Verdict: Is OAT Booster Worth It?

Please use the jump-to links above to quickly navigate this post.

Video Review: OAT Booster Thoughts

In the video above, John from the Test Prep Insight team breaks down our analysis of the OAT Booster program, including all of the pros and cons. Please keep reading for a more detailed review.

How The OAT Booster Program Works

I want to start this post by running down how the OAT Booster course works before getting into my thoughts.

From a high-level point of view, OAT Booster is essentially a massive collection of OAT study materials. The course includes study notes, cheat sheets, video lectures, practice problems, full-length tests, flashcards, and a few other features.

Generally speaking, in terms of organization, it’s all grouped by OAT subject: Biology, General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Reading Comprehension, Physics, and Quantitative Reasoning.

Almost all of the study material is grouped into these subject-based modules, and you access this content under a tab for each subject along the left hand side of the dashboard. In other words, all of the material is broken out into buckets based on topic.

Without any clear instruction on what to study, this would give the course a somewhat disjointed feel, as material is kind of scattered. However, tying everything together is the study schedule.

Booster has created a 10-week study schedule that guides you through all of the study material in a sequenced order. For reference, there are 8- and 12-week schedules as well, but 10 weeks is their recommended timeline.

In any event, the schedule is incredibly granular and gives you a checklist of exactly what you need to complete everyday. It literally line items out every task in your day. In short, it is very thorough, and it’s the glue that holds the course together.

To sum this up, you follow the checklist-style study schedule and work your way through all of the materials in the course (video lessons, practice sets, study notes, etc.).

I would venture that an average study day takes around 5 hours to complete depending on what’s on your schedule, as well as how fast you’re moving, so it does require a solid amount of commitment.

Honestly though, that’s about it for the high-level overview. You take it day-by-day and work your way through all of the different tools and resources in the Booster program.

OAT Booster Price

Before we dive into discussing the pros and cons of this program, let’s quickly discuss cost.

OAT Booster has two course offerings—their premium membership, and their premium “max” membership. The premium plan costs $479 and grants you access to all of OAT Booster’s materials for 90 days.

Their premium “max” membership costs $799 and grants you access for 180 days.

Putting this in perspective, Booster is cheaper than just about every other OAT prep provider on the market, including their closest competitor, OAT Bootcamp.

Booster costs about $20 less than Bootcamp (their package retails for around $499), and it retails for almost $720 less than Kaplan’s OAT course (their package retails for around $1,200). In short, Booster is a really strong value at this price point.

OAT Booster Strengths

After that quick overview of how the OAT Booster course works and how it stacks up with other prep providers from a cost perspective, let me enumerate a few things I really like about OAT Booster, as well as a couple of things I also wasn’t crazy about. Positives first.

Amazing Video Lectures

The first highlight worth calling out with this program is the video lessons. If you’re a visual learner, I honestly believe you will be hard pressed to find better on demand video lectures for content review.

OAT Booster’s videos have really high production value, focus on high-yield concepts, and include tons animations and visual elements, which I loved. Not to mention, unlike some other prep resources we’ve reviewed where you only get a handful of videos, Booster has hundreds of short videos.

Most of them are only 5 to 10 minutes long, making them easily digestible, and I think they’re about the best in the space. Thus, for visual learners, this is a huge advantage.

And lastly, I would just note that the subject of Physics is a real strength of this prep program. Booster has clearly dedicated some serious resources to their Physics material (including the written study notes), and we see them as being stronger than Bootcamp when it comes to this subject.

Practice Like The Real Thing

The second strength with OAT Booster is the practice work. Specifically, there are two things I want to note about OAT Booster’s practice work. The first thing is that they offer a ton of practice problems.

Booster has over 7,800 practice problems in their Qbank and another 80 subject-based practice tests, which is about twice as much work as Kaplan offers.

Yet, almost more importantly, the practice work is very realistic. I think OAT Bootcamp’s practice work is very close to the real thing in terms of realism.

They have done an excellent job mimicking test style, content, and difficulty. Practicing under exam-like conditions is huge, so this is a big positive.

Love The Cheat Sheets & Notes

The study notes and cheat sheets are some of the best I’ve come across. The Booster written study materials are simply awesome, especially all of the visual elements that they layer into them.

The visuals are really helpful for demonstrating key points, and the notes are super detailed.

Honestly though, I can’t express how much I like the cheat sheets. They are highly condensed versions of the longer study notes and you should plan on relying on them a ton as test day gets closer. They’re color-coded, packed with visuals, and use helpful little acronyms. They are one of my favorite aspects of the course.

Fun Gamification Aspect

One neat new aspect of the OAT Booster course is how they have gamified the prep experience. Within the course (though outside of the main coursework), you can compete in learning-based games against other students.

Not only are the games pretty fun (and I like the competition aspect), but you can also win prizes. The prizes tend to include more mundane stuff, like the ability pause or extend your membership, but it’s nonetheless fun and has a nice monetary aspect to it. In short, I like how they’ve increased engagement with these game- and achievement-based tools.

Awesome Value

Lastly, I don’t want to harp on this too much because it was just discussed above, but at $479, Booster is a killer bargain. They are clearly trying to position themselves as the value prep provider in the space, and I think they’ve nailed it.

They’re a fraction of the cost of other OAT prep providers, so for the money, I’m not sure you can do much better. Also, the company offers a mobile app so you can study on-the-go.

OAT Booster Weaknesses

While there is a lot I like about OAT Booster, there were also some shortcomings. Let’s address those next.

Slightly Disjointed Feel

While the course overall has a very clean and sleek interface, it seems like they stopped short of taking it all the way. For some reason, your course schedule is a separate PDF from the portal, and it’s not directly integrated into the dashboard.

This means that you end up jumping around a little bit between materials. It’s not the end of the world, but it’s just odd, as the course is otherwise so modern and cool. It’s like they took it 98% of the way, and then just added the PDF study schedule as an afterthought.

If the study guide was better integrated right into the program, it would take it over the top.

No Print Materials

There aren’t any printed prep books, study notes or cheat sheets with this course. Everything is digital and accessible through the online portal, which is great, but I do think there is a benefit to printed materials.

You can highlight key points, haul your notes to places where a computer isn’t practical, and drop in post-it notes if you want.

Given how good their study notes and cheat sheets are, this could be a big value add, especially given that they don’t have a dedicated mobile app. I just wish they would include print versions of these written materials as it would be a lot more practical than looking at PDFs.

Verdict: Is OAT Booster Worth It?

All in all, I think OAT Booster is an incredible value for what you get. The practice problems are incredibly realistic of what you’ll see on test day. The video lessons are a huge benefit to visual learners. The cheat sheets are a game changer for the final week or two of studying. And even the study schedule—although I wish it was integrated into the dashboard—still gives you a ton of detailed guidance on what to study and when.

I do have a couple minor complaints about this course, but all in all, I think OAT Booster is a highly effective OAT prep program offered at an awesome price point.