Average Time Per Question on PAT

[GrillKing]

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How much time on average do you guys spend on each PAT question? I tend to find myself spending an excessive amount of time on pattern folding questions (20 minutes) which is eating away from the rest of the time I have for the section. Right now I'm using the DATBootcamp generators for practice in attempt to better my timing. I'm hesitant to use more of my practice exams from CracktheDAT and DATBootcamp since there are a limited number of them. Any suggestions on how to fix this issue?

 

[StudentDoc1234]

20 practice exams is plenty, don't feel like you have to save them. Plus if you wanted to retake them I highly doubt you would remember the answers 20 exams later. As far as your timing goes, you should focus on improving your skill first as opposed to your speed because if you are spending 20 min on pattern folding it says that you aren't really getting how to do it. Once you figured out the tricks of pattern folding (and the other sections) you should then focus on timing and speed. For me the best resource were the Bootcamp explanations in the exams, they dramatically helped me get better scores, especially in pattern folding. Hope that helps!

 

[510586]

The DAT bootcamp test questions on the pAT are significantly harder than the generator, especially angles and TFE. One pattern folding question was like folding a humongous soccer ball haha. The time crunch is definitely noticeable as well. I recommend doing a test once a week (or every 2 weeks) if you want to take them as tests. Another user on SDN said to just do them as if they were practice questions instead of as a complete test. Ex: go to the keyhole questions do one then check your answer if you want or skip down to the pattern folding and do those instead of the generator. Also I think datgenius has angle ranking questions generator that is superior to bootcamp, and it should be free I believe. The angle ranking generator on bootcamp are easier since they aren't flipped as much as in their practice exams.

 

[GrillKing]

20 practice exams is plenty, don't feel like you have to save them. Plus if you wanted to retake them I highly doubt you would remember the answers 20 exams later. As far as your timing goes, you should focus on improving your skill first as opposed to your speed because if you are spending 20 min on pattern folding it says that you aren't really getting how to do it. Once you figured out the tricks of pattern folding (and the other sections) you should then focus on timing and speed. For me the best resource were the Bootcamp explanations in the exams, they dramatically helped me get better scores, especially in pattern folding. Hope that helps!

Thats a valid point. I guess going over my exams and reviewing the explanations is the only way to really improve my skill set on pattern folding. Thanks

 

[GrillKing]

The DAT bootcamp test questions on the pAT are significantly harder than the generator, especially angles and TFE. One pattern folding question was like folding a humongous soccer ball haha. The time crunch is definitely noticeable as well. I recommend doing a test once a week (or every 2 weeks) if you want to take them as tests. Another user on SDN said to just do them as if they were practice questions instead of as a complete test. Ex: go to the keyhole questions do one then check your answer if you want or skip down to the pattern folding and do those instead of the generator. Also I think datgenius has angle ranking questions generator that is superior to bootcamp, and it should be free I believe. The angle ranking generator on bootcamp are easier since they aren't flipped as much as in their practice exams.

Yeah I noticed the generator questions are really easy. I'll prob have to incorporate more practice sections/exams into my routine to get a hang of this. Thanks for the input

 

[510586]

I think a good compromise between skill and speed is to do generators until you hit maybe like 12/15 right or something (as in you already know how to do it) and then begin timing yourself. Not to sound like a drama queen, but going through bootcamp PAT exam 1 kind of shocked me haha. I was getting like 13-14/15 right on generators for everything then I barely could finish in time. It was my first time doing keyholes too. I wish there were keyhole generators :/

 

[OSUkid]

20 practice exams is plenty, don't feel like you have to save them. Plus if you wanted to retake them I highly doubt you would remember the answers 20 exams later. As far as your timing goes, you should focus on improving your skill first as opposed to your speed because if you are spending 20 min on pattern folding it says that you aren't really getting how to do it. Once you figured out the tricks of pattern folding (and the other sections) you should then focus on timing and speed. For me the best resource were the Bootcamp explanations in the exams, they dramatically helped me get better scores, especially in pattern folding. Hope that helps!

I will have to agree with this, kind of like oChem, you learn the skills and then soon you practice speed. It is very efficient, and honestly that is how everything in life works.

 

[RxStudentatUB]

CrackDAT helps you establish a foundation --> DAT Bootcamp fine tunes your PAT skills and timing. I also recommend setting aside another day (or few days) just to review the explanations for the PAT section on Bootcamp. They are EXTREMELY thorough and detailed as opposed to CrackDAT's generic "Let's review the answer choices..." remark that annoyingly begins every video explanation. I think it is best to read the explanations a day or two after the practice test, since your brain is probably a little tired and you never want frustration or emotion from the score seeping in during your analysis. If you don't want to get too bored, try one section per day for review and then you can work your way to the next practice test. Very easy to spend an hour or two doing this, and trust me ... time will fly when you get good. During the review days, you can work on the generators in Bootcamp post-analysis to tweak your skills and timing. I started off with a 14 on CrackDAT #1 and now on Bootcamp #5 with a 23. I'm not the brightest pickle in the world either, so you should be fine with a little persistence.

Currently, my timing for Keyhole/TFE/Angles/Hole Punch/Cube Counting/Pattern Folding was 12/12/10/6/8/12 ... but everyone's a little different so take that with a grain of salt.

 

[GrillKing]

yeah I suppose. I'm still running out of time for one last set of PAT (15Q) problems. I'll just have to keep doing practice problems. I'm assuming all of you are averaging around 40sec/Q