Angle Ranking??? Confound this CRAP!

[TheSandlapper]

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How in the world are you supposed to do this? I got bootcamp, I saw the tutorial video, I use the generators. Yet in spite of all this I get more wrong than right consistently. What is going on here? Is there something to this? Are people with poor vision given a pass?

 

[dentalstudent2021]

practice practice and more practice. if you practice everyday for 15 min for 2 week straight, you should get it.
Its likely the hardest section on PAT, so don't worry too much. Just keep practicing

 

[Graffix]

Also look into different strategies! They could give you a new perspective on how to approach the problems. Maybe envision the angles as slices of pizza or slices of pie and try to "eat" the biggest piece. My favorite was thinking of the angles as laptops with the backlight on.

 

[SDDDAT]

I agree, practicing every day is the way to go. You might not see any improvement day-by-day, but over time if you record your practice scores, you should see some big improvements.
It also helps if you use a combination of strategies, whether that be the rapid eye technique or the laptop method, etc.

 

[postpitadh]

I scored 24 on the PAT section my last time around just using Bootcamp's PAT material. The first thing I look at is the answer choices. From there, you can usually deduce the answer down to 3 choices after deciding on the smallest or largest angle. Then, you compare the next smallest or next largest angle choices from the 3 answer choices remaining. Usually, you only need to make two comparisons between just two angles each time to find the correct answer. When comparing between two angles, I tilt my head perpendicular to one side of the angle, and follow the other side up (generally for acute angles) or down (generally for angles around 90 degrees), imagining that I am biking up a hill or sliding down a hill. It becomes sort of a game and the more fun you have, the better you will perform. Also, for obtuse angles I think of them as pies. I focus on the apex of each angle, and follow both lines out. It's a very small difference that you have to see..But hey, at one of my interviews the admissions director said that there is research showing the PAT section doesn't predict any kind of success in dental school so don't worry too much if you can't master it!

 

[rak173]

Out of the final 2 options that you narrowed down to, pick the one that you think is wrong instead of going with your gut. It may help.

 

[big john stud]

practice every day. the bootcamp generator answer choices are much easier than the real thing because half of the answers are eliminated when choosing the biggest or smallest.

For example:
1-x-x-4
2-x-x-4
1-x-x-3
2-x-x-3

the upside is that you can answer these questions really quickly which makes it less time consuming to answer 50 questions. When i first started using the generator i would get between 50-60%, now after only a week of doing 50 questions every day, im getting 60-70%

The more you practice the faster you'll get and on the way you'll realize some tricks you can use to improve your accuracy

 

[tinydancer510]

I just recently took the DAT and even the morning that I walked into the testing center, I was not at all confident about my angle ranking abilities. I definitely felt like I was one of the people that just couldn't differentiate between the angles - there were some days I'd get more right than others, but I was never consistent. The best advice I have (that I used on test day) is to mark every angle ranking problem and go back to it at the end of PAT, after you've put time and effort into the questions that have more reliable strategies. Don't even look at them the first time through the questions. I knew I'd ultimately be guessing on every single one of them anyways, and allotted more time to the other parts that I felt like a little bit of extra time may make a difference in choosing the right answer. Then when I got to the end of PAT and was confident in the rest of my answers, I gave angle ranking my best shot, but didn't let it get to me. I know this isn't the "best" advice because I never really found a good way to solve them, but definitely a helpful test-taking strategy that I used. Hope it works for you!

 

[WheatLom]

My tip, I use the grapple method and I use a head nod.

Head nod- I would "draw" the angle using my head like a nod. If it was a 90 degree angle, I would go straight up and to the left. The next angle if it felt like I had more or less turn in the angle when after the straight i felt like i was able to get the angle.

^^ weird to explain over writing.

Also, if you are THAT bad at it. Just get really really good at the other sections and then do those sections first on the DAT so you can get the most points total. Why spend a lot of time on a portion of the test that you are constantly bad at. I saved angles for last.

 

[Bingwen]

My tip, I use the grapple method and I use a head nod.

Head nod- I would "draw" the angle using my head like a nod. If it was a 90 degree angle, I would go straight up and to the left. The next angle if it felt like I had more or less turn in the angle when after the straight i felt like i was able to get the angle.

^^ weird to explain over writing.

Also, if you are THAT bad at it. Just get really really good at the other sections and then do those sections first on the DAT so you can get the most points total. Why spend a lot of time on a portion of the test that you are constantly bad at. I saved angles for last.

What is the grapple method?