PAT Speed Issues

[NumbaOneStunna]

Advertisement - Members don't see this ad

So I've been practicing PAT lately and it seems that my main issue is speed. I do fine on questions that I can devote enough time to but when I get to pattern folding I find I'm a little bit stressed for time since I'm a lil slow at the other sections. Here's an average breakdown of how I spend my time on the PAT, can you tell me the best places to focus on speeding up on and pointers for doing so?
(Minutes)
Keyhole: 9
TFE: 14
Angles: 11 (I know conventionally people say that this should be a 5 min section, but I've tried rushing through it vs. taking about 10 minutes and I do alot better with the extra time)
Holes: 11
Cube: 6.5
Pattern Folding: 8.5

It's crazy that some of you guys can actually finish the PAT with a couple minutes left! Come exam day, I think I'm gonna be a little slower due to anxiety - what are all of your experiences with this?

Thanks!

 

[Dental Jarry]

I would say you have to speed up angles..people most likely finish with time left over because they get through angles in probably 5 minutes max...figure if you cut 5 minutes off angles you will have 5 minutes left at the end. If thats not possible for you to do I would say try to speed up TFE and holes a little bit.

 

[prsndwg]

So I've been practicing PAT lately and it seems that my main issue is speed. I do fine on questions that I can devote enough time to but when I get to pattern folding I find I'm a little bit stressed for time since I'm a lil slow at the other sections. Here's an average breakdown of how I spend my time on the PAT, can you tell me the best places to focus on speeding up on and pointers for doing so?
(Minutes)
Keyhole: 9
TFE: 14
Angles: 11 (I know conventionally people say that this should be a 5 min section, but I've tried rushing through it vs. taking about 10 minutes and I do alot better with the extra time)
Holes: 11
Cube: 6.5
Pattern Folding: 8.5

It's crazy that some of you guys can actually finish the PAT with a couple minutes left! Come exam day, I think I'm gonna be a little slower due to anxiety - what are all of your experiences with this?

Thanks!

I would say be close to 30 min mark line by the end of the angles..

 

[dfymarine]

very simple!

practice practice practice practice till you feel sick of it

 

[Dental Mom]

Definitely don't take more than 5 mins for the angles....I do it really fast when I'm practicing, then I have more time for the Top-End and Holes.....don't get frustrated. This is a marathon for your brain and you have to train and practice. Make sure you keep track of where you are doing good too. We become so competitive with ourselves that forget to look at our strengths and where we are scoring high 👍

 

[lazybummy]

Angles.. go with your first instinct.. no point of giving it a second look. I was unsure of 14/15 angles i got on the test.. and i did okay.

 

[bryantje]

Something I tried that really helped me move faster was to save angles until the end. I would do pattern folding first, marking the difficult ones for later (right before angles, that is), then keyholes, then holes, then TFE, then cubes, then angles. I am always tired by the time I get to angles, but if I'm going to guess what's the difference?

 

[Shinpe]

I actually usually take about 10 mins for angles (my weakness). But I spend less time on TFE (usually 10) and holes (usually 5). Different people have different parts they're good/bad at, you just gotta balance it in a way to maximize you score. I can get holes and cubes done REALLY quick, so the time I save there, I spend on angles ......... and of course practice makes everything faster.

 

[joonkimdds]

I had only 1 min left for folding section 15 questions. I was about to cry.

 

[ZzZzSleepyhead]

Holy crap joon,
How'd you pull it off with 1 min >.>. For me pattern folding is probably the hardest if not tied for the hardest with TFE...

 

[NumbaOneStunna]

I actually usually take about 10 mins for angles (my weakness). But I spend less time on TFE (usually 10) and holes (usually 5). Different people have different parts they're good/bad at, you just gotta balance it in a way to maximize you score. I can get holes and cubes done REALLY quick, so the time I save there, I spend on angles ......... and of course practice makes everything faster.

Shinpe what's your method for doing holes so fast? Do you use grids or do you do it in your head or do you split it up ? Any advice?

 

[dufran3]

A method that works great for me, is the "layers" method. Count the number of layers you are punching a hole through, that equals the number of holes in the final product. This is a super easy way to eliminate 75% of the answers. 🙂

 

[NumbaOneStunna]

A method that works great for me, is the "layers" method. Count the number of layers you are punching a hole through, that equals the number of holes in the final product. This is a super easy way to eliminate 75% of the answers. 🙂

Do you do this at the start of every problem, if not when do you use this trick? Also anyone have any tips on speeding up TFE, I think I'm just naturally slow at it - I've read the pat tutorial here and understand line counting - but do any of you guys have a speedy general order of things you check for to find the right answer?

 

[dufran3]

Yes, I do it at the very start. It's easy to do, and take a couple of seconds. On every problem I did, I was able to eliminate at least 2 answer choices. Well worth the few seconds in my opinion.

 

[Dent010]

Some of the best advice I can give you for pat and math is use your mark function. I finished my pat with 20 mins left and only had about 8 marked. I think it's better to mark and then get the ones you know for sure and come back to the ones you are unsure of if you have time left. If you hold yourself on any one problem it will take away from time that could have spent on other problems you might have known forsure

 

[nze82]

So I've been practicing PAT lately and it seems that my main issue is speed. I do fine on questions that I can devote enough time to but when I get to pattern folding I find I'm a little bit stressed for time since I'm a lil slow at the other sections. Here's an average breakdown of how I spend my time on the PAT, can you tell me the best places to focus on speeding up on and pointers for doing so?
(Minutes)
Keyhole: 9
TFE: 14
Angles: 11 (I know conventionally people say that this should be a 5 min section, but I've tried rushing through it vs. taking about 10 minutes and I do alot better with the extra time)
Holes: 11
Cube: 6.5
Pattern Folding: 8.5

It's crazy that some of you guys can actually finish the PAT with a couple minutes left! Come exam day, I think I'm gonna be a little slower due to anxiety - what are all of your experiences with this?

Thanks!

If you've just started practicing for PAT, it's normal to be a bit slow. I was pretty slow myself. But on my DAT, I finished the PAT section and I was left with like 7 minutes. So, you're speed will improve, provided that you do enough practice.
Keep in mind that speed is crucial. Given enough time, pretty much everyone can score 20+ on the PAT section. What makes this section challenging is the time constraint, and they do that for a reason: They want to see how well you perform under pressure!
So, practice practice practice, and when you're sick of practicing practice some more until you resolve this issue!

 

[NumbaOneStunna]

My latest test breakdown:
KeyHole: 9
TFE: 15.5 🙁
Angle: 8
Hole: 9
Cube: 8 (Got a tricky ~50 cube one)
folding: 10

I've made progress on getting angles from 10 to 8 minutes, but I still feel like I need a good 12-13 minutes for folding. TFE is owning me and I'm wondering how to practice for this once I've done the 10 tests in CDP. How exactly should I practice TFE, just go through the problems multiple times because after a while I inadvertantely memorize the answers.

For all of who are scoring well on this can you tell me how you practice apart from doing the 10 tests? How many times do you go over past tests, and do you do stuff outside of CDP?

 

[Dental Jarry]

What I did is I started doing the tests over again. Honestly all I did with cdp was kept practicing. I never reviewed any tests after I took them. I just kept taking them and all of a sudden it started clicking in my head. My first 4 tests i got 17,16,16,17, and I would have like 8 questions left when time expired. By the time I got to test 10, I was consistently getting 21's and over and I would finish with like 8 minutes left over. I took the DAT yesterday and ended up getting a 22 which was my second highest score on cdp. Just for your reference, I found keyholes to be harder than cdp, TFE was probably about the same(however line counting really didnt work), angles were 10 times easier(there were like 2 or 3 hard ones), cube counting was really easy(but there were only like 2-3 questions per set of cubes but no illusions), and folding was pretty difficult (there was one dice that had to be folded and the majority were shaded boxes)...The best advice I can give you for TFE is learn to do it without counting lines. Thats what I did and it actually becomes easier once you really understand what your looking at. Learn to do it by knowing what type of line should be where

 

[Shinpe]

Shinpe what's your method for doing holes so fast? Do you use grids or do you do it in your head or do you split it up ? Any advice?

I just do it in my head. I'm not sure how to explain it, but basically at every step I would try to keep trap of where the holes are and where they go. I don't know how the grid works. I think just practice will get you where you need to go. Get familiar with the folds in CDP/topscore/achiever I'd say and you'll kill it.