PAT tricks and tips

[joefosho315]

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Hey guys, could you list some of the tricks and tips that you use for getting through the PAT section? I hear mentioning of "TFS" method as well as the 5 side = free standing trick? However, I have no idea what these tricks actually are, can anybody elaborate, or add their own tricks and tips? As for me, the ones I use for angles is to compare them to 45 or 90 degree angles, or see if you can "park" one of the angles into the other. As for hole punching, I eliminate answer choices by checking the symmetry of the folds, but this can get tricky if there are half hole punches (hope the real DAT doesn't have this). As for TFE and pattern folding, I know of no method at all, so just think them through....so a method would really help! Lastly, for cube counting, I use barron's method of tallying up the cubes, but I sometimes wonder if I'm better off just not going through the whole hassle of tallying.

 

[Decan]

I would like help on these sections as well...so, BUMP.

As for tallying up cubes, I've found that tallying helps me keep track of how many cubes I have counted so I dont forget any choices. If I dont employ this method, I usually miss one or two questions.

 

[chrisvocker]

Kaplan's "event" strategy for the top/front/end views section is helpful.

Basically you count the number of events - or number of things happening as designated by a line (dotted or solid) - and make sure those number of events corresponds in whatever answer you pick. This strategy allows you to elimiate down to about 2 choices. You have 50/50 chance from there and just have to make your perceptual call at that point.

This strategy REALLY boosted by "views" score, and a lot of the time I had no idea what the real object looked like....but rather knew where things would be occurring and just eliminated incorrect options.

 

[ashleybeans]

I find the tallying of the cubes really helps me & actually i go faster with it. The free standing = 5 sided trick is just that any cube that is sitting on top of the object with nothing connected to any of its sides has 5 painted sides.

For TFE, I agree that the counting of events really helps.

For pattern folding, which i think is the hardest, i look for something that has a really odd shape and make sure that that 'face' appear in my answer choice, which helps with eliminating ones that are definitely wrong. I also make sure the pattern of the shading is the same in the answer choice as in the flat piece of paper. Again this can't point u to the definite answer, but it does help eliminate which helps your chances.

For the hole punching, i also use symmetry and i found that it is very helpful. I also look for the original hole and make sure the answer choices has it b/c often time 1 or 2 of the answer choices doesn't even have hte original hole.

I think this is it, but if i think of any other methods i use, i'll u know.

 

[joefosho315]

Kaplan's "event" strategy for the top/front/end views section is helpful.

Basically you count the number of events - or number of things happening as designated by a line (dotted or solid) - and make sure those number of events corresponds in whatever answer you pick. This strategy allows you to elimiate down to about 2 choices. You have 50/50 chance from there and just have to make your perceptual call at that point.

This strategy REALLY boosted by "views" score, and a lot of the time I had no idea what the real object looked like....but rather knew where things would be occurring and just eliminated incorrect options.

Hey, I've never heard of this strategy before, but it sounds really effective. However, I'm still not exactly sure by what you mean by counting events. Can you elaborate on how to exactly count the events? Maybe it would help if you could describe how to do it on a simple shape, like a cube with a hole going through (front and back hole). Thanks!