Questions regarding my PAT scores/other scores on BC.. 1 week before DAT

[MessiNeymar10]

Hello friends, long time lurker here.

I take my DAT in about a week and I've taken 4 individual PAT BC tests this past week and I'm not able to finish any of them. My strategy is to avoid TFE by making sure I do the rest to solid accuracy. I start on Angle-hole punch-cube-pattern-keyhole and IF I have time (usually never do, TFE).

So I've taken 4 PAT BC tests and here have been my scores

Keyhole, 10, 13, 6, 3 (had 8 min left on this section :,( )
TFE 1, 5, 2, 3
Angle 11, 9, 10, 12
Hole Punch 12, 9, 12,13
Cubes 12, 12, 12, 12
Pattern 6 (first time I took it lol), 13, 11, 10

So my averages have been
Keyhole-9
TFE- 2.75-- most likely to be 3.75 on the actual if I just guess all C
Angle 10.5
Holepunch 11.5
Cubes 12
Pattern 10

Now I'm a little worried because I am aiming for at least a 19 on the real DAT but have only gotten 17 (50 right),18 (58 right),18 (53 right),17 (53 right)

How much time should I be allocating to each section? I'm finding that sadly I am left with 20-24ish minutes after Angle, hole punch, and cubes. I will keep practicing but I'm moving like a madman and still feel like I'm sucking eggs.

Follow up question, Is BC really a bit more challenging than the actual DAT for the PAT? Im scoring 19 ave for Bio section, 19-20ave for orgo section, 19-20 ave for Qr (comes easier to me), and 22.5~ for Chem (my favorite section ) all on Bootcamp.

What should I do this last week in preparations for this test would y'all recommend Any input would be helpful.

Edit: Studied with BC, Feralis, AP book for bio, Qvault for Orgo/Bio, Chads vids for Orgo/chem, math destroyer, Chem Destroyer (finished only 300/600 bio problems, Orgo finished only 150/300 orgo questions).

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[FeralisExtremum]

IMO - angles, hole punch, and cubes should not be taking you 36-40 minutes to complete. They shouldn't even be taking you 30 minutes to complete. These are by far the easiest sections to get fast in so you can use the leftover time on the more challenging pattern folding, TFE, and keyhole sections. Are you practicing these three sections daily using generators and timing yourself, or are you only using individual tests?

 

[zToothinator]

What methods are you using for hole punching and cubes?

For angles, you should spend maybe 15-30 seconds per question.

For hole punching, I found looking at lines of symmetry method to be helpful

 

[MessiNeymar10]

I guess maybe for angles is where I'm losing most of my time because I am finishing that section with 48-46 minutes on the clock :-/ So I guess I should get faster in making those decisions.

@Feralis, I was at the beginning of the studies but then I went and focused on the AA part and just recently started taking the full PAT sections. I felt fast in the generators, (able to average 15 hole punch, angles and cubes in about 27-28 minutes). I just felt like the generators were way easier though, so I felt more pressure to be able to take my time and get them right.

For the cubes I go one cube at a time and record how many open spots it has vertically, then move to behind that cube, finish the entire left side and then move to the cube to the right and repeat. I got a little thrown on some of the ones that were like diagonal rather than straight perpendicular left to right, but I've gotten better with it.

For the hole punching i lay out a 4x4 grid and I try to visualize where each hole goes after folding, somewhat using a line of symmetry, but not necessarily the method used in the video. I also seem to be getting flustered by the seeming slightly more difficult BC folds.

 

[intoblondesnow]

Like Zburk, my first question is what strategies have you been using on Cubes and Hole punching section? These two sections you can consistently score, close to 13/15, if not get all 15 correct, while burning little time.

For cube counting- use the TALLYING strategy. If you are unfamiliar, here is the link to the video Ari (of Bootcamp) made to show test takers how to beat cube counting. This will do 2 things for you: save your valuable time, and have you scoring 15/15 on the cubes section if you are thorough and careful.


Next, hole punching. Simple- use the line of symmetry technique that Zburk posted above.

Keyholes and TFE are going to be your main time consumers. Take a little more time, look at specific features, eliminate answers. Technique is simple here, but practice is the only way to get quicker.

Angle ranking IMO can be a total shot in the dark. You should consistently get questions correct that have angles in the same orientation, but if you catch yourself burning time on one that you aren't sure on, find the largest and guess. I say this because from your post it sounds like your time is being lost here.

You don't want to waste time on the hardest questions only to have no time to answer the ones you can easily answer.

Best of luck!




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[intoblondesnow]

Just to add, your cube counting strategy IMO is more difficult and less consistent than what Ari teaches in his video, I highly recommend going layer by layer (bottom-to-top) in order to stay consistent. It is very easy to lose track of which cubes you've already counted if you go left to right, and since switching to his technique I have been consistently scoring 15/15 on bootcamps practice tests.


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[wu_53196]

I used the hill method for angle ranking and it got me from 8-9 to 13-15 consistently


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[MessiNeymar10]

Interesting. I never did cube counting like that. Thank you so much I didn't know I was doing it wrong, but I guess that's a pretty helpful tip! Thanks blonde snow . Zburke, thanks for your input, I didn't really use the axis of symmetry method but rather try and fold my head and place each steps holes on my 4x4 grid. But I guess the axis of symmetry rules make it faster/easier! Thank you so much.

Hill method... lol I think I do some sort of variation of that, but I guess I'm just taking too much time and thinking for too long.

Thanks everyone for the input! So how long realistically do you recommend to take on Angles+cubes+folding?

 

[wu_53196]

i tried to stick to 25-30 min or less on those three sections. I always did angles, hole punch, cubes, then pattern folding and then ended with keyhole and TFE (with 23-25 min for these). get through the angles quickly.

Also, make sure to write out your grids and number charts ahead of time

 

[MessiNeymar10]

Do you know if I finish my science section early if I can write out my grids and tally table on my laminated sheet of paper? Or do they have to be taken away/erased before each section?

 

[ColoradoTeeth]

Do you know if I finish my science section early if I can write out my grids and tally table on my laminated sheet of paper? Or do they have to be taken away/erased before each section?

You can't start writing anything before you do the science section, but if you finish early you can do your grids

 

[Faefly]

From what I hear people saying. Keyhole is harder on the real thing, how about you leave keyhole to the end, and do angle, punch cube, pattern, TFE and then Key Holes

 

[wu_53196]

Do you know if I finish my science section early if I can write out my grids and tally table on my laminated sheet of paper? Or do they have to be taken away/erased before each section?

yes you can do your grids after you finish the sciences, someone also said that you can write them during the 15 min tutorial but I didn't try that.

 

[MessiNeymar10]

What sections on the actual PAT did you guys find to be harder than BC? What were easier than BC? I know the Chem/Orgo seem on point as well, maybe BC is a little more challenging (?) I hear math is way easier than BC, RC has slightly easier questions on the DAT (?) and Bio was on point. Can anyone attest to that?

Also I scored a 19 on this practice test with the line of symmetry help and only taking 10 minutes to do angles wooo! Just need to practice practice practice.

 

[ppaa]

I was kind of in your shoes a couple of weeks ago and ended up getting a 22 on the actual DAT PAT section. Here is my advice, I averaged around 18-19 on my bootcamp tests and brought it up to a 21 on 2009 test.
For timing, finish angle ranking, cube counting, hole punching and pattern folding in 30-33 min. So you can have 1 min per question on TFE and Keyhole.
For me I found it easiest to do it in this order but that may vary depending on you: angle, hole, cube, pattern, tfe, keyhole
I found this worked for me:
Do the 150 problems for each section of the PAT (scroll all the way down on BC PAT). DO ALL OF IT. Yes they are the same questions in the BC test but going through 150 of them, you see that you understand them with more practice. So try to do 2 sections of 150 a day. Each section took me 2:30-3 hrs because I was reading the explanation for each question even if I got them right. Then you can just build up your speed, obviously if you know it, you do it faster.
For cube counting, instead of doing ticks for how many sides, I would go from level to level and write the number of sides just in case i messed up so i could go back and check. like:
5
432
243432341
For TFE: watch the tutorial videos on bootcamp
For angle: use couple of methods that help you visualize, I don't think one method will work for all the questions
For Hole punching: use grids, i think this method is great
for pattern: look for a unique shape and try to find it
for keyhole: attention to detail is everything here

 

[smile matters]

I used the hill method for angle ranking and it got me from 8-9 to 13-15 consistently


What is the hill method? I keep hearing about it