How do you master the PAT?

[You]

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Hello all top PAT scorers,

1) How do you master the PAT part?

When I take it untime (TIMER OFF), I get most right.
When I do it with a TIMER ON, I only get about half done and half unfinished. I have to give it straght "C" in the last 1 min for the remaining half.
When I try to do it at a 40sec interval, I get about 50% wrong.

2) On books, you can cross off (for elimination). On computer, how do cross it off?

3) What's your strategy to finish all and get most correct under timer pressure?

I'm guessing that you'll just say practice, but I'm not sure if that'll help as each is new one anyway.

Any tip would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[cocokeala]

im taking the kaplan course and i've been doing well on the PAT but i know that the PAT is a lot easier for kaplan. i dont know if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but all the practice i got for pat with kaplan makes the PAT section easier when i do practice tests because similar types of shapes come up. i wonder if they are a lot different on other tests so i just ordered topscore. anyways, i tend to not run out of time because i recognize similar shapes or patterns. i do the angle ranking really fast..i just base it on my first insticts. i dont know if there are any strategies that others use for angle ranking besides locating the largest angle first and the smallest. i spend a lot of time on the top end front questions and the folding section and try to whiz through the angle ranking and cube counting. try getting a really good system down for counting cubes it really helped me. well thats all i got hope others have better advice than me! hehhee good luck!

 

[Orthodox Bear]

My best advice regarding PAT: just keep doing questions....after you've been through a few hundred questions your brain begins to get used to thinking perceptually and you start picking things up much faster.

 

[4thQtrDreams]

as i continue to take practice exams i seem to do better and have more and more time.. I used to skip top front end and come back to it and then would have to click through the last half of the top-front-end due to lack of time..

my last practice test i scored a 24 with only 1 wrong in each section with 3 minutes to check my answers...
My last scores before that was 20 and 21.. you have to learn not to be stubborn with questions. find one answer thats correct, go with your gut and move on to the next question..

btw, i dont use paper rulers or anything like that.. I think thats when you rip off a corner strip of paper.. use one side as a 45 degree angle and the other as a 90 degree angle to compare angles to (but everyone says angles are much harder on the actual DAT)....
top front end i use event theory though its confusing and mainly fold the object
over and try to make sure ends meet and everything makes sense..

 

[54807]

btw, i dont use paper rulers or anything like that.. I think thats when you rip off a corner strip of paper.. use one side as a 45 degree angle and the other as a 90 degree angle to compare angles to (but everyone says angles are much harder on the actual DAT)....

You gotta be careful with that though! I've heard some Prometric locations are very watchful of you and you can't touch the screen with anything but your hands....and even then they don't like it. I think it could be potentially really helpful on a question here and there though.

What is the "event" that you refer to in front/top/side? Is that counting hidden lines and other lines and just making the quick check?

 

[luder98]

Two things that helped me score high on the PAT:
1. PrAcTice
2. Be able to eliminate the wrong choices
The second one is as important as the first one. Except the angles, I quickly glanced through the choices to find the correct answer. If I couldn't, I would start eliminating. For the angles, look for the largest and smallest first, then look over the choices. Most likely you can pick out the right choice or at least it will come down to comparing two angles. Good luck! By the way, buy DAT Achiever if you can afford it. The 3D explanation is worth more than the price of the software.