PAT Problems

[unsure student]

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I just recently decided on pursuing dentistry as a career and am literally losing sleep over the PAT section of the DAT. Does anybody have any good tips or know any good books for each of the six subsections within the PAT? I would really aprpeciate any advice, comments, or suggestions. Thanks

 

[pbure]

Barrons has a good PAT section..Kaplan's materials help as well. Just do tons of examples man..but don't get frustrated early by top,right,end section and the pattern folding..those aren't easy. try and nail cube counting,hole punching and angles as best u can..on the actual test i recommmend finishing up angles,hole punching and cubes as quickly as possible..u will need the extra time for keyholes et al.

 

[trypmo]

practice practice practice practice

practice makes... um... practice (as in a dental practice)!

 

[DrTacoElf]

I found it easiest to start with kaplan blue book (and blue book CD) while reading barrons suggestions. Then move to barrons problems and then topscore and finally acethedat.com if you have time or feel you need more practice.

 

[HangOnSloopy]

i had lots of problems with the PAT, and there are two things that helped me get my score from a 15 up to an 18.

1) In my opinion, the cubes are the easiest, followed by hole punching, views, angles, keyholes, and folding. When I did them in that order (both on real and practice tests) it saved me more time for the hardest questions and I ended up with better scores.

2) DO AS MANY QUESTIONS AS YOU CAN. Its not like science or math that you have learned and can review. The only way to study for it is to do as many sample ?s as you can, and you'll trick your mind into thinking the right way.


Good luck!

 

[msf41]

One of the study guides suggested creating a tabulation table on the cube counting section. Count every cube and make a little tick mark for every 0,1,2,3,4,5,6. Using this strategy I was able to get 100% of the cube counting questions almost every time on the practice tests. On the real DAT I got a PAT of 21 overall but they don't tell you what you missed section by section. It may seem like it would take more time to make the table, but you make the time up because after you make the table you can answer several questions (how many 2's, how many 4's, how many 5's) very quickly by just looking at the table.

 

[trypmo]

One alternative to the table method is to write out a string of numbers as you go over each cube in order, then go back over the big string of "13342642241322" and pick out how many 1's, 2's, etc. there were in it.

 

[msf41]

Trypmo...I think your idea is better than my chart idea, because with the chart if you lose track of which block you are counting, you must start counting all over again. With your method if you forget where you left off you can just look at your list "1524321" and say "oh, the block with 1 side is where I left off.

You are wise.

 

[trypmo]

Drawback: I don't even look at the page when I'm making the list of numbers, just the cubes (so I don't lose my place), so I often end up with illegible scrawl going off the edge of the paper. 😀

 

[msf41]

Trypmo--If cube counting were a profession...You could make MILLIONS. 😀

You are the PAT master!

 

[hockeydentist]

In cube counting, if you make a list ,like other said, you should do quite well on that section.

thing you have to worry about is the monitors. They are crappy!

 

[hockeydentist]

I thought the Barrons tips, by far was the most helpfull for the PAT ability part.


good luck
hd

 

[toony]

Barron's will definitely best prepare you for the perception test. it's got some paper samples which you can cut out and play with until you understand - ie. key hole and cube sections.

 

[trypmo]

Trypmo--If cube counting were a profession...You could make MILLIONS. 😀

You are the PAT master!

Hmm... Maybe I should forget this whole dental school thing and just become a "cube counter." I can just see myself on the side of the road with a cardboard sign saying "will count exposed sides of cubes for food." 😀

Kindof ironic that on the actualy test day, I got, well, let's just say far below a 20 on the PAT. 🙁

 

[cool fillings]

I think I did the cube counting like Trypmo, except I made the list in columns, and the first column was for the bottom layer, the next for the one above it, and so on. This made it easier for me to check to see if I had missed any cubes...it's easier to count that there are seven on the bottom, five in the middle, and three on top than to count all 15 and if you've come up short have to try to figure out where you missed a cube.

Just a slight variation that helped me out a little because I had problems with forgetting to count some of the cubes.

Also, I would suggest getting used to taking the PAT after the science once you've mastered some of the PAT skills...and do it on a computer. I only took one full length computer test before taking the DAT, and during the real thing my stamina for staring at a computer screen just wasn't what it should have been. I took plenty of practice PAT sections on paper and did great, but found taking it on a computer after a long science section was a bit more difficult. Practice it so you're ready for the eye fatigue factor.

 

[Dr.SpongeBobDDS]

Geez, I didn't even know there were any other DAT helps besides Kaplan and TopScore when I took it. But I think you all should know that the real PAT is about ten times harder than in kaplan and topscore so don't get too confident.

Just keep working at it and soon it'll start clicking. 🙂

 

[Sprgrover]

If you can spare the extra money ($50) then acethedat.com has a PAT section that is about as rough and challenging as the real deal. Be mindful, though, that there are some grading issues with their product so don't get discouraged by your initial score; go back and re-check everything and you might discover that your score should have been a couple of points higher.