PAT Keyholes: Visualize first, or look at answers first?

[hellobruin]

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Hi all!

I have been making a LOT better progress on PAT thanks to CDP, but the one section that still gets me is keyholes. So I just wanted to ask y'all what your strategy for keyholes is.

Do you mentally visualize the top/front/end view of the object first, and then try to find the answer? Or do you look at each answer choice and compare it to the object?

Moreover, how do you "visualize" the views? I do this weird hybrid of imagining the outlines' shadows while simultaneously pretending to crush the object against the wall.

Thank you x a million!

 

[aqz]

Looking at answers first is the way to go. You'd waste too much time trying to imagine the shape because some of the answers require your visualized image to be sideways, flipped over, etc.

When selecting an answer, you just want to pick one that looks good, then compare it to the others and see why they're all wrong. If you start thinking...wait that answer looks better than my current one, then look for why your answer might be wrong.

When you get good, you should also be familiar with a few specific visuals, such as whether a slanted side really is a slant or if it's actually perpendicular to the ground, whether a side is long enough/tall enough/fat enough to fit the keyhole, and whether you should go for the cut-out fit or the all-inclusive fit (for example, imagine a block-shape E, the cut-out fit would be an E shape, while the all-inclusive fit would be a rectangle representing the back of the E).

 

[smostajabian0]

I see u did awesome on ur RC for DATqvault, I'm horrible at this section, I got 20 for the first one and 18 for the second one, which strategy do u use? Thank u so much 🙂

 

[aqz]

Haha...I really think qvault is lying to me about my RC, feeling like I'm going to get a 17 on the real RC.

Of the two tests that I took, I got 4 wrong on the first, 1 wrong on the second...I pretty much realized that the whole thing was just search and destroy.

My strategy at the moment is just to read the first question, start reading the passage until I stumble upon the answer for that question. Answer it. Then see what the second and third questions are and see if I can answer either of those. Then keep reading. If I ever come across an inference question that I won't be able to answer without reading the whole passage, or if I come across one of those "The first statement is true, while the second statement is false" questions, I'll probably end up skipping until I've answered the rest of them. But asides from achiever, I haven't found any of those questions yet, so I'll probably go do some achiever RC later.