PAT Pattern Folding Questions

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When I first started doing the PF generator last week I sucked immensely at it and could not visualize the shape folding into its final form at all. I started focusing on the answer choices instead. Now, I go one by one and compare each answer choice to the figure. I focus on two/three folds at a time and have found this method very helpful in eliminating the wrong answer choices.

I hope this helps. Keep practicing, you can tackle it!
 
Have you already looked at the explanations provided? You don't really have to fold the whole thing. All you have to do is look at an answer, pick a piece, and fold the nearby pieces, which for the majority of the time is very do-able. Takes a bit of time, but you'll get use to it.
 
Has anyone just guessed on the Pattern Folding, Top Front End, and Keyhole and focused on getting points on the easier other 3 sections of the PAT?

This is an awful strategy, please don't do it. Even if you were amazing at the other three sections and could get them 100% right every time, you probably still wouldn't get a 19 or 20. TFE and keyhole and pattern folding can seem tricky because you can't sort of instantly solve them at a glance (like angle ranking) or use a guaranteed strategic approach that produces the right answer (like cube counting and hole punching). But they are the three sections you can approach methodically by eliminating the other incorrect choices. It might be time consuming, but it is also one of the few where you can work backwards and guarantee a correct answer with enough practice. These are the three sections that you can absolutely improve the most with practice - the only section you should ever be guessing on is angle ranking.

As KyoPhan said, you don't need to fold the entire figured in your head and rotate it - you just need to fold together the relevant pieces exposed to you. Give it some more time and regular practice with the generator - it will start to click eventually.
 
Has anyone just guessed on the Pattern Folding, Top Front End, and Keyhole and focused on getting points on the easier other 3 sections of the PAT?

I definitely know where you're coming from. These three sections are very tough at first. In my opinion if you wanted to use such a strategy I would only risk completely guessing on 1 out of the 3 sections you mentioned. This is essentially what I did. I used DAT Bootcamp's practice tests and generators to prepare for this section. With lots of practice, I found that I was able to master the TFE and pattern folding sections because there are strategies for these questions I was able to eventually pick up on. However, no matter how hard I tried on the key hole section, I never really found a strategy that worked well for me. I mastered all of the other sections and essentially just guessed on the keyholes and got a 22 on the real thing. I don't believe it would be possible for you to guess on all three and still do well, but if you try to master 2 out of the 3, guessing on one section and still getting a great score is totally doable.
 
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