PAT, how much time did you devote to studying for it vs. the other subjects?

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Msmouth

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I have just started looking at PAT just to get my feet wet. TFE, pattern folding and angles are difficult for me so far but I've only just begun. Any tips for TFE?

I have Crack PAT only so I'm open to other practice material that can help.

I plan to take the DAT in August. I'm currently taking 16 credits, working part-time and have a young family.

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I have just started looking at PAT just to get my feet wet. TFE, pattern folding and angles are difficult for me so far but I've only just begun. Any tips for TFE?

I have Crack PAT only so I'm open to other practice material that can help.

I plan to take the DAT in August. I'm currently taking 16 credits, working part-time and have a young family.

Pattern folding and TFE gets easy with time and practice. Angles just suck, no justification, no tricks, they just suck.

I spent quite a bit of time on it until I felt I had it down PAT (I know awful pun :oops:)

Once you finish 10 tests of CDP if you still don't feel you're up to it, I'd recommend Achiever. It offers a very different (and much more difficult) approach to PAT. Of course it is more expensive and only offers 3/5/7 tests but of course it comes with everything else! Honestly though PAT is purely familiarity, especially if you are like me and not the best at perceiving 3d shapes.
 
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I spent about 12 total hours on PAT prep as I did 7 CDP PAT tests and spent about 45 minutes reviewing mistakes on each test.

This will be a variable number for everyone obviously. I decided to stop doing more PAT studying once I was averaging a 21 in Crack PAT. In hindsight, I wish I would have finished the last 3 tests and done them closer to my real test since PAT ended up being my lowest section on the DAT.
 
I have just started looking at PAT just to get my feet wet. TFE, pattern folding and angles are difficult for me so far but I've only just begun. Any tips for TFE?

I have Crack PAT only so I'm open to other practice material that can help.

I plan to take the DAT in August. I'm currently taking 16 credits, working part-time and have a young family.

In addition to CDP, Achiever, Topscore and the former ADA exams are the best resources to use for the PAT. With that in mind dont overdo it for the PAT as long as you get a 17 or above that's enough for most schools. I did at least one CDP exam per week and then in the last week of studying I did a PAT exam daily.
 
Depends on how strong you are in it. For it me was a weakness so I probably spent about a third of my time on it.
 
Thanks a lot! I had no idea 17 would be enough.

Its not enough for all schools, but if you get a 17 or above you should gain admission. The average PAT scores for all dental schools was a 19, so 25% of all admitted applicants had a lower than 19 on their PAT.

Dont get me wrong, aim for a 20+, but even if you get a 17 or 18 that doesnt mean you wont get admitted.
 
Review every question from your first two exams in detail, and understand how to do each of the problems, and how you could solve it (after reviewing the answer) without re-looking at the answer. You will then get a feel for how you need to tackle the problems

Check the forums for (i think) my super wicked sick pat tutorial. Read through a few pages.
You can google for a site predds, which also has some PAT material.
Between your practice exams, 10 CDP's, that forum and the site above you have more than enough. As you do them, you get faster and will generate a consistent method that works for you. Id strongly recommend reading through the forums to see different strategies for each, and see which of these (or a variant of) works the best for you, and then master it.

Angles - no method or me
Holepunching - used a drawn out box grid and putting my fingers on holes, visualizing the axis and where it would fold, eventually didnt need this anymore
Keyhole - compared heights of different edges, and would look for which edges to compare based on the answer choices. Eliminate obvious wrong ones
TFE- Read the Sick PAT tutorial thread, usually would glance at the sides given in the problem, then glance at the answers, and look for shapes/ edges/ planes i could identify. If i see the font view of the answers contained a hole going through the center, i would look @ the problem top view to analyze for a dotted line through the center running from top to bottom where the hole would be. Then you pick up the nuances like different planes, overlapping edges, etc etc. The more you do, the better youll get.
Folding - compared adjacent sides alot, came with alot of practice
 
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