DAT: PAT Cube Counting

[Sulcus]

Hi,

I just finished taking my millionth practice test before the real DAT next week. I keep getting around a 18 science, 23/24 perceptual, and a 20 quant.

I now I need to batten down on the science, but I am not happy with my PAT portion.

I keep getting perfect scores on all the angles, keyholes, top/front/side, and hole punch, but I keep screwing up on the cube counting. I don't understand what the questions are asking. How do I attack the questions?

Thank you

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[quillow]

For cube counting, I made a little table and tallied the number of cubes with 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 sides painted. Then I went through and added up all those numbers, which should add up to the total number of cubes (I did this just to check that I wasn't messing up somewhere). For the DAT, you'll usually have a couple of questions for each cube counting figure. So after you make the table, you can quickly answer the ~3 questions for that figure since you've already counted it all out. Some people think this method takes too long but it worked for me.

 

[Sulcus]

What I don't understand is the "painted" or "varnished" part of the question. I am taking the practices and all I see are white cubes with black boarders. I know that all cubes have six sides, so for a cube that has two sides hidden because of of the adjacent cubes, the number of exposed sides is four, the number of visible sides depends on the vantage point, two or three or even four.

 

[Booomshakalaaka]

These questions are asking how many cubes in the figure have a certain number of "exposed" sides. Another way to think of "exposed" sides is to imagine you are trying to paint all of the surfaces of the figure and to count how many sides could be painted given the orientation of the cubes. You don't count the underside of the bottom row of cubes, so imagine the figure is sitting on a table.

 

[Sulcus]

Okay, I think I am starting to comprehend it.

So if we have a cube on the bottom with a cube on top and a cube on either side of it, it will have two exposed sides. If we have a top row cube, completely open, it would have five sides exposed.

We count all exposed sized, front and back. but not the bottom.

Do I have that right?

 

[quillow]

Oops... sorry for the misunderstanding. Yeah, you count the exposed sides regardless of the vantage point. All exposed sides except the bottom (which will never be exposed).

 

[Sulcus]

Not a problem, you guy's are life savers.

I just hope the practice tests are really a good indication of how one will do on the real DAT.