Pat

[RU1992]

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On the PAT section of the DAT, does the "counting lines" and "different events" method work for the top/front/end? I had heard that these don't eliminate any choices on the DAT, but through all my preparation, some answer choices could be eliminated based on this. Any ideas?

 

[telemonster]

On some questions it does, and on others it doesn't. It's a good strategy, but sometimes it comes down to visual comparisons or dotted versus solid lines.

 

[jimmy714]

I usually start with counting lines and different events as a quick preliminary elimination, which might get rid of 1 or 2. But as telemonster said, it will usually come down to visual comparison/inspection.

 

[RU1992]

Yeah I understand eventually you have to visually do it. But the events and counting lines does still work a bit on the actual DAT, from what you're saying?

 

[BrutalViking]

when I took the DAT, there wasn't a single question where I could use the line-counting method

 

[Kahr]

My personal experience on the PAT was that visualization allowed me to eliminate all the choices but the correct one most of the time, just using one or two parts of the object and comparing. I didn't get good at this at all until I'd run CDP into the ground and taken practically every practice test available though, and I still had my doubts when I took the real thing. Suffice it to say, I felt the actual TFE was for the most part not as difficult as the practice stuff across the board.

As for line counting, I very rarely tried it and certainly did not practice with it or rely on it. However there were at least two problems on the actual PAT that line counting was very helpful in elimination (there were just too many lines and changes across the object in small bits to simply visualize). These problems took at least 2-3 times as long to solve as the others due to the tedious nature of counting many lines in several different answer choices. So I would say being familiar with that tactic is important, but should not be your crutch come time for the real thing.

Edit: We do have a DAT forum, you might find more information and answers there regarding the TFE if you're willing to put the search function to use. 🙂

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/forumdisplay.php?f=70