I hate PAT!!!

[topdent1]

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How can I improve my PAT abilities? I bought crack dat pat and have completed 4 exams, averaging a measly 17. How did you guys study from crack dat? For me, I don't think repetition is the key otherwise I would have been improving every test. The hardest section for me seems to be hole punching. I am god awful at it (I think my highest has been 8/15 on that section). Anyone with similar issues or solutions for me please post! Thanks

 

[DentalDeac]

Maybe try using a piece of paper and actually punching the wholes in it?

Here are some tricks for whole punching
-you can eliminate answer choices if they are not symmetrical about the first fold in the paper
-keep track of the number of layers of paper and then determine how many holes there will be, eliminate that way also

 

[ak47]

How can I improve my PAT abilities? I bought crack dat pat and have completed 4 exams, averaging a measly 17. How did you guys study from crack dat? For me, I don't think repetition is the key otherwise I would have been improving every test. The hardest section for me seems to be hole punching. I am god awful at it (I think my highest has been 8/15 on that section). Anyone with similar issues or solutions for me please post! Thanks

i might not be a bad idea to cut out some square sheets of paper and fold them up and make up your problems. or go through the answers with your paper and mark it up.
also, do u have kaplan stuff? those hole punching probs are much easier so you might want to work your way up from there. good luck :]

 

[TheGreenWave]

How can I improve my PAT abilities? I bought crack dat pat and have completed 4 exams, averaging a measly 17. How did you guys study from crack dat? For me, I don't think repetition is the key otherwise I would have been improving every test. The hardest section for me seems to be hole punching. I am god awful at it (I think my highest has been 8/15 on that section). Anyone with similar issues or solutions for me please post! Thanks

well im using the same program and my PAT isnt much better after two practice tests, im only getting 18's so far. But, I usually get all of the hole punching ones right. The first thing I do is look at the first fold, it creates a line of symmetry. The answer choice must be symmetrical along the line where the paper was first folded. This alone should clear a few answer choices which arent symmetrical. Next, you can count the layers of papers as they are folded... if a hole is punched in a place with three layers there will only be three holes. Look at answer choices. Hopefully you eliminated all but one or two now. from there i look at how the answer choices differ and try to see how the holes can/cannot be punched in the area they differ. basically use test taking stratagies and look at the answer choices. hope that helped... 🙂

now my turn, haha. anyone have stratagies for the lock and key or the TFE (which im terribly slow at)? how much time do people spend on those two sections?? thanks in advance

 

[topdent1]

well im using the same program and my PAT isnt much better after two practice tests, im only getting 18's so far. But, I usually get all of the hole punching ones right. The first thing I do is look at the first fold, it creates a line of symmetry. The answer choice must be symmetrical along the line where the paper was first folded. This alone should clear a few answer choices which arent symmetrical. Next, you can count the layers of papers as they are folded... if a hole is punched in a place with three layers there will only be three holes. Look at answer choices. Hopefully you eliminated all but one or two now. from there i look at how the answer choices differ and try to see how the holes can/cannot be punched in the area they differ. basically use test taking stratagies and look at the answer choices. hope that helped... 🙂

now my turn, haha. anyone have stratagies for the lock and key or the TFE (which im terribly slow at)? how much time do people spend on those two sections?? thanks in advance

Thanks for the advice everyone. I love keyholes. I wish we could trade skills! There is not a procedural strategy for keyholes like their is for hole punching or cube counting. For keyholes just try rotating the figure between the front, top, and sides views. One of these is bound to be the answer. Look at each answer choice and when you see one that fits, don't spend time looking at the others because keyholes exact. TFE is a little harder. Some people say use the counting method which basically is counting the number of vertex points and matching it with one that has the same number (if you do a search i'm sure you'll receive way better info. than my 5th grade explanation). Other than that, try to put all three views together and see if they make a shape in your mind.

 

[sweetpea2]

Im using crack dat pat too. Does anyone think that the cube counting on the "Illusion" ones are ridiculous. Besides that, its not too bad. For anyone who took the dat...does the real DAT have optical illusions????

And im hoping crack dat pat is harder than the real thing cause i cant seem to brak 18's on it and i really want a 19.

 

[Orgodox]

Yea some of the cube counting in crack the pat if off. They have floating cubes ans sometimes missing lines Aside from that its a great program.

Heres my advice for what its worth- if you want to improve your PAT score first work on your skills in the individual sections. Try the easier material from Kaplan and other sources. Once you understand each section and feel confident doing an entire PAT against the clock then go for crack the PAT. But I think you need to build up your skills in individual sections before you try and tackle it all head on.

 

[hoss19]

Yea some of the cube counting in crack the pat if off. They have floating cubes ans sometimes missing lines Aside from that its a great program.

Heres my advice for what its worth- if you want to improve your PAT score first work on your skills in the individual sections. Try the easier material from Kaplan and other sources. Once you understand each section and feel confident doing an entire PAT against the clock then go for crack the PAT. But I think you need to build up your skills in individual sections before you try and tackle it all head on.

i agreee with orgodox in this regard. master then pieces, then put it all togehter.

another common issue for those w/o much pat practice is the clock. It is really important to work quickly through the sections that you are good at. Fortunately for me, I was averaging 7 min each with holes and angles. This opened up time for me to focus on keyhole / patterns folding which i was not good with. There really are two ways to build up your ability to work quickly through PAT problems. The first is practice, practice pratice. The other (which sort of comes hand in hand with the first) is knowing what answer choices to eliminate based a 'quick and dirty' read of the question.

For TFE, the line counting method is only okay for the real thing. At best it may get you the answer to 1 or 2 questions, but more likely it can be used to eliminate one or two answers. But DONT rely on it to get you thru this section...you will be sorry!

 

[topdent1]

Could someone please explain how to use the number of layers folded as a strategy for hole-punching? I think this might solve my problems. 👍

 

[Ghettob1aster]

Could someone please explain how to use the number of layers folded as a strategy for hole-punching? I think this might solve my problems. 👍

I went through each step from right to left, unfolding the paper in my head. Just keep track of where the holes are in each step.

That sounds like an interesting strategy though, I would also like to hear if it works.

 

[Neuro178]

I am terrible at TFE's too.. Is there some way to get these? I can get the simple ones, but I don't really understand event counting. Plus I've heard on the DAT that all of the answer choices have the same number of events, so counting does no good.

Any good step-by-step way to learn TFE? I even took the problems to a professor who loves mind games like that and he couldn't figure them out either!

One other question -- if there is just no hope with the TFE, can I just focus on the other 5 sections and guess on the TFE? How much would that hurt my PAT score?

 

[Hugh Mannity]

Im using crack dat pat too. Does anyone think that the cube counting on the "Illusion" ones are ridiculous. Besides that, its not too bad. For anyone who took the dat...does the real DAT have optical illusions????

And im hoping crack dat pat is harder than the real thing cause i cant seem to brak 18's on it and i really want a 19.

I'm sorry to burst your bubble but Crack is the most similar PAT program out there to the real DAT PAT. The cubes on the real thing do not have illusions and the hole punching may be a little easier. My average on Crack was 24-25 and real DAT 26 and I thought they were almost identical, down to the layout and design of the program.

 

[sweetpea2]

so you went up 1-2 pts which is what im hoping to do as well. Well see.

 

[DRHOYA]

Im using crack dat pat too. Does anyone think that the cube counting on the "Illusion" ones are ridiculous. Besides that, its not too bad. For anyone who took the dat...does the real DAT have optical illusions????

And im hoping crack dat pat is harder than the real thing cause i cant seem to brak 18's on it and i really want a 19.

I can help you out with cube counting. Those illusion ones can be tricky. Check this thread out or PM me. http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=532310

 

[STACM]

Next, you can count the layers of papers as they are folded... if a hole is punched in a place with three layers there will only be three holes. Look at answer choices. Hopefully you eliminated all but one or two now. from there i look at how the answer choices differ and try to see how the holes can/cannot be punched in the area they differ. basically use test taking stratagies and look at the answer choices. hope that helped... 🙂

is there an easy way to count the layers of paper where a hole is punched...or do you pretty much have to pain stakingly go all the way back folding it in your mind

 

[TheGreenWave]

is there an easy way to count the layers of paper where a hole is punched...or do you pretty much have to pain stakingly go all the way back folding it in your mind

Unfortunately, there is not really an easy way. First, you always check the line of symmetry in the answers, which i explained on my earlier post. Next, go straight to the image where the holes are punched and keep it in mind as you slowly follow the folds and count the layers. Be careful though, its very easy to count incorrectly. Its almost instinct to multiply the layers by two for each fold, but make sure youre adding the folds.

Also, if the symmetry thing gets you down to two answers, you may not even have to count. Sometimes its just best to see how the answers differ and try to conceptualize how the "extra" holes on one got their. I promise if you practice these stratagies the section is very easy (from my experiences with crack dat pat, not the actual DAT). If you post some images maybe I can walk you through it.

Hope that helped even though I was a bit repetitive 🙂