How to improve on PAT??

[annie12]

I have crack DAT PAT, top score, achiever, and the kaplan BB. Last week I was scoring 14 on CDP, now i'm getting 17s, but I want to get a 21! What is the best way to do this? On achiever I was able to get a 16. I don't think I'm getting any better at the individual sections now.
I'm getting worse at angles!
MUCH better at TFE (I started out getting 3 right! now i get 9-12)
and the rest have pretty much stayed the same.
Is there a good way to improve on angles?
ANY advice would be helpful!

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[dentalWorks]

I have crack DAT PAT, top score, achiever, and the kaplan BB. Last week I was scoring 14 on CDP, now i'm getting 17s, but I want to get a 21! What is the best way to do this? On achiever I was able to get a 16. I don't think I'm getting any better at the individual sections now.
I'm getting worse at angles!
MUCH better at TFE (I started out getting 3 right! now i get 9-12)
and the rest have pretty much stayed the same.
Is there a good way to improve on angles?
ANY advice would be helpful!

This method worked out for me
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=675995

Oh, and I never improved on angles no matter how I tried. I really believe angles are instinctual, you either got that ability or you don't. I always got about 7-8 right on angles (out of 15) from every test.

also check out ross's videos from the DAT forums

 

[rccostner]

check out these videos from a fellow SD user. his methods are easy to learn and effective for the PAT.

http://www.youtube.com/user/condog51?feature=mhsn#p/a

 

[SeattleRDH]

Practice practice practice!

My strategy was to get really fast in the areas where I was strong (like cube counting) and to mark the questions where I was not absolutely positive about the right answer. I got so fast from practicing that I had 10 extra minutes on the real test to go back and stare at those iffy ones for a minute or two. I changed 3 or 4 of them. Got a 23.

 

[Freeskier02]

Practice practice practice!

My strategy was to get really fast in the areas where I was strong (like cube counting) and to mark the questions where I was not absolutely positive about the right answer. I got so fast from practicing that I had 10 extra minutes on the real test to go back and stare at those iffy ones for a minute or two. I changed 3 or 4 of them. Got a 23.

Everything SeattleRDH just said is gold. The more extra time you have for the PAT the better to knock out those tough questions and score high!

 

[uldental]

The best way to get better is practice practice practice.
There are some tricks that help.
For angle ranking, when I took the dat they were like .05 degrees off from one another!! but I noticed that most of the times that they had at least one line parallel to each other. example: a series of angles with the same base.. if that makes any sense.. so i just blocked out that line and tried to see which one would reach 90 degrees 1st or which one just went back further. (it help to lean back a little)
I also spent the least amount of time on this section because you should be using that time on key holes and pattern folding instead.
And WATCH OUT for keyholes on the DAT!! I just took it in June and saw the weirdest shapes I havent seen on any prep stuff, like freakin' topographic s***!
Anyways, I hope that helps!

 

[annie12]

thanks! these tips were really helpful. i guess i was improving more than i though. i just took CDP test 4 and got an 18!

When you review your answers how do you make it help you? what i mean is...
if you see a keyhole answer and the one you picked was too skinny and you see that once you choose the answer so now you know "oh i need to watch out for that" BUT...
if you see a keyhole that was a weird view that you never would have seen, how do you make yourself see that in the future?

OR on TFE what do you do? I used the kaplan book and took colored pencils and drew which lines corresponded to which lines in each view and that REALLY helped, so for the tough ones on CDP i've been doing that as well.