For me personally, I would get more answers correct if I folded away from the screen. I actually prefered folding towards the screen, but that method did not work well for me.
I started to get more pattern folding questions correct when I learned how to eliminate. I would look at each answer to see if they were even possible by isolating two sides. I would pick two sides to investigate in one of the answers and then go back to the unfolded pattern and only fold those two sides in my head. I tried to avoid folding the entire pattern in my head before I looked at the answers. The EXTREMELY challenging pattern folding Q's will require you to visualize the 3D image, but there aren't to many of those. I scored a 24 on the PAT, but I practiced a lot for this section.