What are your guys' Keyhole strategies?

[Mycoalwin]

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I'm struggling with keyholes on Bootcamp PAT. I average anywhere from -5 to -7 just on keyholes alone, and that is really dropping down my score! I have pretty much everything else pretty locked in (unless angles mess with me), so I'd really like to boost up my keyhole section.

Right now, I'm somewhat following Ari's approach to keyhole, but it seems too slow. My strategy: immediately look at the answer choices and eliminate any choices with discrepancies I can easily spot out. My only problem is that sometimes I go too quickly and disregard answers that are actually correct.

What do you guys do when facing keyholes? Do you re-analyze the given object each time and compare to each keyhole?

 

[FancyFloss]

Look for key landmarks and see if the shapes in the answers correspond to the figure. Sometimes an angle will be too deep or too shallow in an answer and so it won't be that. Other times a certain feature of the figure will be off center but one of the answers may put it in the center making it wrong. The best strategy in the end is to do a bunch of practice sets and start to notice patterns quicker so that way you don't waste time trying to figure out all 15 keyholes.

 

[TheEpicFruitCake]

Do them slow. The first time I did keyholes it took me 20 minutes to do 15. But I got them all correct. Speed will come with practice. Really take the time to visualize the paper across the lines of symmetry.

 

[dawg289]

Go straight to the answer choices. Try to find a feature that is WRONG, then move on. If you can't see anything the first time, go onto the other answer choices.

 

[flossiraptor863]

When you look at the answers, it's easy to pick out which ones are supposed to be from the same point of view. Compare them both to that view of the structure, and move along to the next point of view from there. I found it helpful to review all of the options for Keyholes since there are a lot of situations where 2 answers seem correct until you get a second look at it.

 

[LightAtTheEnd]

I start by looking at the answer choices and comparing the similar views.

I've noticed that if there is one part of a view that is incorrect, usually, that's the ONLY part that's incorrect. The rest of the view is an accurate representation of the figure. So then I compare the "correct part" of that view to the other similar views and repeat the process.

 

[Mycoalwin]

Took another full Bootcamp PAT and still stuck around 20.
9 keyholes wrong, 8 angles wrong.

Even did angle generator and got 15/15 last night...

 

[FancyFloss]

Just keep practicing and looking over your answers. Not much else you can do.

 

[Weakfart]

Took another full Bootcamp PAT and still stuck around 20.
9 keyholes wrong, 8 angles wrong.

Even did angle generator and got 15/15 last night...

Literally my same issue. Almost all my incorrect answers lie with these two. I maybe miss one or two of the rest.

 

[Mycoalwin]

Just keep practicing and looking over your answers. Not much else you can do.

Seriously. It's just so annoying that right when I see I get it wrong, without looking at the explanation, I can see why it's wrong. Guess I need to work around the time pressure a bit more.

 

[LightAtTheEnd]

Try my method for keyholes! I've been getting at most 3-4 wrong with it... it's working really well.

 

[FancyFloss]

Seriously. It's just so annoying that right when I see I get it wrong, without looking at the explanation, I can see why it's wrong. Guess I need to work around the time pressure a bit more.

I tried out a few strategies before I settled on the one I posted first. Find what you are most comfortable with and then just keep practicing with it. That's how I went from a 15 on Kaplan (which is supposedly a whole lot easier than the real thing) all the way to a 21 on the 2007 practice DAT (not 2014 but still a major improvement). The most important way to score well on the PAT, and I can't stress this enough, is to be comfortable with the method and material. It's all about confidence because once you start second guessing yourself it's all over cuz you waste time, go back to questions already answered, and you make yourself a nervous wreck by the time the math section comes.

 

[aquaniff]

can anyone explain how 1 is b for the one on this link : http://predds.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/keyhole-1.jpg

I understand how you get up to the "roof" but what part of the shape does the peak come from?

These are harder than I initially thought...

 

[Mycoalwin]

can anyone explain how 1 is b for the one on this link : http://predds.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/keyhole-1.jpg

I understand how you get up to the "roof" but what part of the shape does the peak come from?

These are harder than I initially thought...

The "roof" / peak comes from the pyramid shown in the given structure. The two triangles meet at an apex / pyramid top.