Kaplan PAT vs Actual

[Muggs]

I've heard mixed things about the Kaplan PAT. Some people have said that it is not representative of the actual DAT in that it is easier. However, I've also heard that a lot of the people that do take the Kaplan course usually score lower overall on every section of the midterm/final than on the actual DAT. So in terms of each of the 6 question types in PAT, can someone give a comparison between the difficulty levels of Kaplan PAT problems vs the actual DAT PAT problems?

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[goonsquad]

I did Kaplan and my actual PAT scores were similar to Kaplans. I actually was averaging around 18 in Kaplan and got a 19 on the real thing so in my experience I would say Kaplan was pretty accurate

 

[Muggs]

thanks for the reply. this may be answering the same question, but besides getting a similar "score", how would you compare the Kaplan PAT "problems" with that of the actual DAT.

 

[pdog]

I got a 26 PAT on the real thing (thread here) and between the midterm, final, and 3 practice tests on the Kaplan online class, my PAT score was ranging between 23 and 30.

Here are my impressions:

Keyholes: Kaplan seemed the same as the real thing, I'd say.

TFE: Kaplan seemed the same.

Angles: Kaplan was way easier. On the real thing, I swear the angles were 1 degree apart. Kaplan's biggest/smallest strategy works for eliminating some wrong answers, but you still have to figure out which of the remaining answers is correct. On Kaplan, if you identified biggest and smallest, 9/10 times you could narrow it down to a single answer based just on that.

Hole Punch: real thing much harder. Definitely doable, but not a total cake walk like Kaplan.

Cube counting: real thing and Kaplan were similar.

Pattern folding: real thing and Kaplan were similar.

 

[Muggs]

thanks for the info. also congrats on your scores!