I'm on week 2 of studying for the DAT and I am using bootcamp. I'm currently struggling with the angle ranking and TFE sections. I'm spending 15 minutes a day on the angle ranking and only getting about half of them right. Should I just keep practicing these everyday to get better or are there any tips you guys have? For the TFE section it just frankly blows my mind so any tips for that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Angle ranking and TFE
- Thread starter lynnm
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Angle Ranking was pretty easy on the DAT. Maybe 2 or 3 questions that was hard to distinguish. TFE was hard. Harder than BC. It showed the weirdest angles and lines. It was soo complex. Key Hole was hard too because it was making interpret how "long" the shape was and if the keyhole would show slants and stuff. Hole Punch, Cubes, and Pattern folding saved my score tbh.
I also had rock shapes!
I also had rock shapes!
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any weird folds for hole punching?
Nope! I just did the usual method of drawing a cross and put X's in which ever holes i think would be there. Pretty straightforward! It was like doing BC.
edit:/ I know your DAT is in 3 days but I downloaded this PAT app called Speedster DAT and I just used the Holepunch game. It helped me tons!
edit:/ I know your DAT is in 3 days but I downloaded this PAT app called Speedster DAT and I just used the Holepunch game. It helped me tons!
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Bootcamp has two types of TFE. The generator TFE and the practice exam TFE. The real exam is similar to the TFE found in the practice exams on bootcamp. The best way to master TFE is pick one of the two given sides, isolate a unique area, and then compare this area to the answer choices. After a lot of practice you realize that its just a bunch of motifs that repeat themselves, for example if you see two dashed lines running through the center of the figure its probably a circular tunnel, if its three lines then its probably a triangular tunnel.
Angle ranking is a real pain. 15 minutes is not enough time to master this section. You need to give it an hour. Maybe break it up into 15 minute intervals or else you will drive yourself crazy. I tried every method. I would up using a combination of all of them. I would use the answer choices and compare them vertically from left to right, only looking at one choice at a time. For example, if choice A is 4<2<3<1 and B is 3<1<2<4 and C is 4<2<1<3 and D is 4<1<2<3, I would first compare 4 to 3, if 3 wins, I have the answer, if not I compare 2 and 1 and so on. Eliminate answers using the strike-through feature on test day (bootcamp doesn't have this) To visualize, you can put a finger near the screen to make all of the sides of the angles the same length. You can also use the rapid look technique where you switch between staring at the vertexes of two of the angles rapidly. Another one is the hill method which talked about a lot in other posts. Personally I found that staring at the angles with my face close to the screen, then moving away from the screen and rapidly switching between them helped me a lot. And never compare more than two angles at a time. The best way is to use a bunch of these and see what works. I saved angels for last on test day because they are quick and you tend to waste time if you second guess yourself. This will screw you over for the other sections. Good luck!
Angle ranking is a real pain. 15 minutes is not enough time to master this section. You need to give it an hour. Maybe break it up into 15 minute intervals or else you will drive yourself crazy. I tried every method. I would up using a combination of all of them. I would use the answer choices and compare them vertically from left to right, only looking at one choice at a time. For example, if choice A is 4<2<3<1 and B is 3<1<2<4 and C is 4<2<1<3 and D is 4<1<2<3, I would first compare 4 to 3, if 3 wins, I have the answer, if not I compare 2 and 1 and so on. Eliminate answers using the strike-through feature on test day (bootcamp doesn't have this) To visualize, you can put a finger near the screen to make all of the sides of the angles the same length. You can also use the rapid look technique where you switch between staring at the vertexes of two of the angles rapidly. Another one is the hill method which talked about a lot in other posts. Personally I found that staring at the angles with my face close to the screen, then moving away from the screen and rapidly switching between them helped me a lot. And never compare more than two angles at a time. The best way is to use a bunch of these and see what works. I saved angels for last on test day because they are quick and you tend to waste time if you second guess yourself. This will screw you over for the other sections. Good luck!
TFE: a good tip to learn is use the 3-D image that rotates on bootcamp and analyze how each line is portrayed. Know that if based on a certain view you can tell which lines are exposed to your view and which are hidden. There are if from the top it is dashed and the side view is sold and the front is solid. you have a "cliff" where the top extends out making things from the top look like dashes but the front and side are still visible as a solid.
Angle: I struggled hard. I tried the grapple method. It didn't help much, but I probably got like 50% on the angles.
if you know you are bad at a specific test, get really good at everything else, and do the one you are bad at, last. Why spend 10 minutes on angles when you can get a similar score with 6 minutes and use the extra time to guarantee points on the other sub tests.
Angle: I struggled hard. I tried the grapple method. It didn't help much, but I probably got like 50% on the angles.
if you know you are bad at a specific test, get really good at everything else, and do the one you are bad at, last. Why spend 10 minutes on angles when you can get a similar score with 6 minutes and use the extra time to guarantee points on the other sub tests.
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OP, for acute angles my ex taught me to look at the start of the angles and the darker the beginning of it then that means it's smaller. I like that technique for acute angles.
