I think I may seriously be lacking in visual-spatial skills! :(

[jy87]

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Hello,

I've been studying for the DAT for the past month and the PAT specifically for the last 1.5 weeks and I'm having a lot of difficulty on the PAT section. The other sections that I've studied I am doing fairly well on but the PAT seems to be an issue.

Although I've seen some improvement in my scores/the time I take to complete the sections, I still feel like I'm really lacking in this section.

I recently took one of the PAT practice tests (on DAT Achiever) and scored a 16! I know that the DAT Achiever was designed to be more difficult than the real thing but this score is really discouraging. 🙁

I scored a 19 on a practice Kaplan PAT but I've heard that Kaplan tends to be easier than the real thing and I had already briefly gone over many of the questions on that specific test before as well.

The key issue is that I'm finding visualizing a lot of the 2D stuff on the page/screen into a 3D image in my head difficult and therefore I'm having really big problems on aperture passing, orthographic projections, form development and some paper folding.

I'm so bad at orthographic projections that I need to take literally one hour to do the 15 questions and I usually still don't get 15/15. I've been intentionally skipping this section (guessing randomly for the 15 questions) on the practice tests that I've taken to give me more time for the other sections.

My question to all you is: Although I'm sure scores improve over time, there must also be a genetic compenent (i.e. one's inherent visual-spatial skills) that play a role in the speed/accuracy that one completes the PAT questions.

I fear that I may seriously lack this genetic compenent 🙁 and therefore maybe would not make a good dentist because of it and my scores may never significantly improve on the PAT.

Like I mentioned before, my scores on the other sections are above-average (~20 on RC, ~23 on QR, ~22 on GChem...the other sections I haven't started yet), but I just can't seem to visualize the PAT stuff. I also know that it generally doesn't look good to score well on all sections save for one which you bomb.

Thanks for taking the time to read this incredibly long post! 🙂

If anyone has seen some HUGE increases in their score on the PAT section with practice...let me know!

Any advice/comments would be greatly appreciated.

 

[djeffreyt]

There are both components to being able to handle the PAT that you mentioned that matter.

Of all the components of the DAT, the PAT is probably the one that is easiest to get better at over time simply because the more of the practices you do, the better you get. So keep looking for any practice you can get your hands on. Ignore your scores, frankly...it's not about the scores cause as you said...some tests are made harder than others, but you just need to keep practicing to get better...there aren't too many more secrets to it.


As for a genertic component...yeah...there probably is some truth to that, but what probably more likely is that you haven't had to do a lot of 3-d visualization in your life so you're just really not used to this. That probably means you won't see huge improvements over short period with practice...but you have to start somewhere. The PAT comes very naturally to some people because of their past experiences. A few years back, my friend scored a 28 or 29 on it. He has an architecture background. I got a 23 after not really practicing the PAT, but I have almost a decade of 3-d design background...but the fact is...before my friend was an architect and before I did 3-d design...you probably would have sucked at the PAT too. But you'll get better with practice and a little time.

 

[Aner]

I think it is genetic...my mom and brother did the practice PAT's with me and we all scored high in angles, hole punch and cubes, and sucked at keyholes, folding and top/bottom/side. You do get better though if you stare at the 3D things for weeks on end.

 

[UnderRep]

Are you female?

Just asking because as a whole I found women have a harder time with the PAT section than men. It just the way our brains work.

Go get a engineering book that has TFE problems in it for a CAD class, and practice with those.
This is one reason a lot of men are in engineering they can visualize this stuff better than women. it does piss me off but hey ive accepted it.

If your male, uhh i dont know what to say. just practice, practice practice.

 

[Aner]

This is one reason a lot of men are in engineering they can visualize this stuff better than women. it does piss me off but hey ive accepted it.

Thats interesting, I never thought of that before. Maybe it's the other way around though? Maybe they are better at visualizing because they are expected to fix things and build things as children? Like, a boy will play with blocks, while a girl gets put in the corner with her Barbie doll?

 

[UnderRep]

Thats interesting, I never thought of that before. Maybe it's the other way around though? Maybe they are better at visualizing because they are expected to fix things and build things as children? Like, a boy will play with blocks, while a girl gets put in the corner with her Barbie doll?

This can be it, they develop these skills at an early age. Just like everything else its just conditioning.

 

[jy87]

Thanks everyone for the advice!

I think I was maybe over-reacting a little bit after I got the 16 on the DAT achiever 😀

Since that post I've done two more practice PAT tests and scored better on both of them.

I guess I was just frustrated that sections like QR and GChem come really naturally to me and I don't have to put in much work to do well in them and PAT actually requires me to focus and work!

I think what you said, djeffreyt, is right on the target. I don't really use my "Visual-spatial" skills for anything (I'm an anthro/psych major) so its just a skill I'm going to have to teach myself.

And UnderRep I am actually a male. 😀 And you're right... psychological studies have shown that males, on the whole, do have greater spatial skills than females. While females have greater linguistic skills, on average. (Thought I'd mention that so neither gender would be offended 😉 )

 

[Aner]

So diplomatic of you! 👍

Your parents didn't make you play with blocks when you were a baby, did they? I wish mine did, they should have better prepared me for life

 

[Mstoothlady2012]

Actually achiever is hard!

I did topscore 3 tests & then i did achiever 1 test - i got frustrated & didnt do any further.

topscore 1. 16
2. 17
3. 17

achiever 1. 16
i dont think practicing is helping me at all. I guess 3D is not just for everyone🙄 I know i am going to get low score in PAT big time!!!!

 

[pre-dentalguy]

Hello,

I've been studying for the DAT for the past month and the PAT specifically for the last 1.5 weeks and I'm having a lot of difficulty on the PAT section. The other sections that I've studied I am doing fairly well on but the PAT seems to be an issue.

Although I've seen some improvement in my scores/the time I take to complete the sections, I still feel like I'm really lacking in this section.

I recently took one of the PAT practice tests (on DAT Achiever) and scored a 16! I know that the DAT Achiever was designed to be more difficult than the real thing but this score is really discouraging. 🙁

I scored a 19 on a practice Kaplan PAT but I've heard that Kaplan tends to be easier than the real thing and I had already briefly gone over many of the questions on that specific test before as well.

The key issue is that I'm finding visualizing a lot of the 2D stuff on the page/screen into a 3D image in my head difficult and therefore I'm having really big problems on aperture passing, orthographic projections, form development and some paper folding.

I'm so bad at orthographic projections that I need to take literally one hour to do the 15 questions and I usually still don't get 15/15. I've been intentionally skipping this section (guessing randomly for the 15 questions) on the practice tests that I've taken to give me more time for the other sections.

My question to all you is: Although I'm sure scores improve over time, there must also be a genetic compenent (i.e. one's inherent visual-spatial skills) that play a role in the speed/accuracy that one completes the PAT questions.

I fear that I may seriously lack this genetic compenent 🙁 and therefore maybe would not make a good dentist because of it and my scores may never significantly improve on the PAT.

Like I mentioned before, my scores on the other sections are above-average (~20 on RC, ~23 on QR, ~22 on GChem...the other sections I haven't started yet), but I just can't seem to visualize the PAT stuff. I also know that it generally doesn't look good to score well on all sections save for one which you bomb.

Thanks for taking the time to read this incredibly long post! 🙂

If anyone has seen some HUGE increases in their score on the PAT section with practice...let me know!

Any advice/comments would be greatly appreciated.

What are you using for PAT study material?

Marion

 

[z3u2]

practice makes perfect...

and in addition to practice..

there are techniques that you can use...
for example, for top/bottom/side
u do not always have to "visualize" the 3D structure, simply by applying the technique you can usually eliminate most of the "incorrect" answers...

it's hard to describe the technique in words, it's easier to show it in person.

 

[lifeisgood]

As much as I love DAT Achiever, it's PAT is overkill. I don't think I ever even scored a 20 on it's PAT section yet I managed a 24 on the real thing. If you can get good at Achiever PAt the real PAT will be a joke. I personally thought that Topscore was much more on par with my particular test. Actually the pattern folding on my real DAT was even easier than those on Topscore. Anyway, good luck!

 

[OceanBlue]

As much as I love DAT Achiever, it's PAT is overkill. I don't think I ever even scored a 20 on it's PAT section yet I managed a 24 on the real thing. If you can get good at Achiever PAt the real PAT will be a joke. I personally thought that Topscore was much more on par with my particular test. Actually the pattern folding on my real DAT was even easier than those on Topscore. Anyway, good luck!

uhmmm...i thought for the PAT, dat achiever was "just a bit" harder. My real PAT score=my practice PAT score from dat achiever

 

[drzaidds]

i totally feel you about the PAT section of the exam...i am not visually/spatially blessed at all! my uncle an architect gets these things with a blink of an eye and i have to sit there and examine the answer key b4 i fig out how it is...as far as the sex- i am female and i do think males are way better at the PAT section...but also it does depend on how much u have been exposed to it...i say keep practicin- eventually it'll come to you!

 

[bruinpredent]

As much as I love DAT Achiever, it's PAT is overkill. I don't think I ever even scored a 20 on it's PAT section yet I managed a 24 on the real thing. If you can get good at Achiever PAt the real PAT will be a joke. I personally thought that Topscore was much more on par with my particular test. Actually the pattern folding on my real DAT was even easier than those on Topscore. Anyway, good luck!

i agree wholeheartedly with this, especially since we took the same version of the exam. my PAT score was about the same as topscore, a good 3 or 4 points higher than achiever.

best of luck 👍

 

[littlemissy]

thats good new to hear because my achiever score is about a 19-20 and my crack the pat score is 19-20 but my topscore is 21-25. so that makes me feel better.

 

[shawn_wac]

Not to scare anyone, I have a minor in drawing and feel I have above average spatial skills, but I only scored an 18 on the PAT. I am pretty sure I missed 99% of the angle questions. They were so, so much harder than anything I had studied in books or on computer test. Most were way too close to tell. Most of the time I had to narrow it to a 50/50 choice at best. The other stuff was pretty easy as long as you prepare for it. Just watch your time. Of course, what do I know, I only scored an 18... OUCH!

 

[Aner]

I didn't know about all these computer programs to study so I did the PAT from the Kaplan book. It's pretty weird to take the actual test on a computer screen when all my practices have been from a book. It messed me up. thats my story and I'm sticking to it. So my advice...practice on the computer, not from a book.

 

[Sprgrover]

I didn't know about all these computer programs to study so I did the PAT from the Kaplan book. It's pretty weird to take the actual test on a computer screen when all my practices have been from a book. It messed me up. thats my story and I'm sticking to it. So my advice...practice on the computer, not from a book.

I agree that practicing on the computer is a good idea. Unless the guidelines have changed, you're not allowed to hold things up to the computer screen (hands included) or touch it, so studying out of a book in which your able to really get close and compare angles, etc. can sometimes give a false sense of security. While the other portions of the DAT were either as I expected or easier, the PAT was certainly the section that gave me a run for my money. A few years ago when I was preparing to take the DAT there was a rule regarding your Topscore PAT and DAT scores - basically, subtract 2-3 points from your Topscore score and that will probably be what your actual PAT score will be, and it held true for me. It is certainly possible to raise your score, and it comes with lot's and lot's of practice. 👍

 

[pine88]

Ok, gotta represent from the girls. I'm female and I scored 23, so anything is possible women. I haven't done art since 6th grade and don't deal with 2D/3D pictures (I was an anthro major too 🙂)

One thing I found that helped that you can do whenever, is picture yourself standing in a place you know well. I used my backyard. Vividly imagine what you see, as if you are standing with your back to your house. Then slowly turn yourself in a circle (in your head only!) and picture what you would see at each step, as if you were video taping it. It's hard at first to rotate the images in your head without actually moving your body, but it gets easier. And I thought it was easier than rotating foreign objects, because it is something you are familiar with, and you can start doing mental snapshots of the different sides, and then learn to string them together. I always did this when I was lying in bed before I fell asleep.

Kinda random, but it might help. And it's kinda fun. Good luck

 

[Aner]

Wow Pine, that's an interesting method. Really really cool. I never thought of rotating objects besides those in the PAT. Apparently it worked great for you, congrats!