Studing PAT...HELP!!

[myameena]

I'm so bummed out right now. I've bee ngoing over the PAT questions and the only thing I seem do well at are those angles. I can't for the life of me fold paper and I have an even worse time with the punch hole thingys! The keyhole concept I'm ok at. So....is there a certain way I'm supposed to go about learning this stuff? You know like tricks/test taking strategies?

I feel so overwhelmed because I want to do well. Brand and Teething said I need to know ALL the gen chem AND MORE. And now this PAT stuff has me down. There has to be some trick to doing it.....

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[RSXer]

Well, the good news for you is that you do well onthe angles. This is probably the toughest one to improve on, I believe. You pretty much either see it or you don't. So good for you with the angles. But keep in mind that the angles on the real DAT are quite tough. Use the Topscore CD o practice. The topscore Cd is the only way (other than Princeton Review or Kaplan) that you can see the angles on a computer screen. It's quite different than on paper.

As for the other sections, I believe that you can benefit from looking over the Barron's guide. Go to your local bookstore and read up on it. THe section for the PAt is not too long so you can just read it there and not have tobuy the book (although I found it helpful for math as well).

Sorry, but I don't remember any tricks/tips right now. Its been a year since I took it! But I DO remember that Barron's helped me the most in finding tricks. FYI, I also took Kaplan course and Topscore.

 

[teething]

Hey,

The only thing I can say about the PAT is practice, practice, practice. With that said, I have to be honest and said that I didn't seriously study the PAT until about two weeks before my test. The best study guide for the PAT was Barron's. It gave helpful hints and strategies that I didn't find anywhere else. While I'm telling you this, I must also say that I only got an 18 on the PAT....I was grateful for an 18, I felt that I did horrible on the real test. You will find that the general consensus is that the PAT was harder on the real test this year, than the practice tests. The lines were all unclear and undistinguishable.

Teething

 

[erinb03]

Hey,

Don't get down on yourself. I was probably the worst at PAT when I first started. I took the Kaplan course, and at the beg. of the class, they make you take a diagnostic. I got like an 11 on the PAT section, but after the course was over, and I'd studied and practiced all of the HINTS the PAT instructor for Kaplan had given me, I improved on my real DAT up to an 18. During the Topscore practice on DVD, I was making 22's on the day before my actual test. It's going to be fine, you're going to do great, just practice, and for me, the Kaplan course really, really helped. I had Barron's as well, and I didnt like the book personally, just and FYI.

Erin

 

[realysa]

hey,

i did horrible on my pat's. the first time i got a 13 and the second one i got a 15.

the good news is that i got accepted to columbia and nyu, so there plenty of hope.

i think if you get at least a 17 on it, you'll be fine.

hang in there!

 

[realysa]

hey,

i did horrible on my pat's. the first time i got a 13 and the second one i got a 15.

the good news is that i got accepted to columbia and nyu, so there plenty of hope.

i think if you get at least a 17 on it, you'll be fine.

hang in there!

 

[djsux]

Personally, all the threads that I've read about the PAT was that it was harder than the practice tests. I thought it was about the same, though the angles were a bit tougher, and there were some funky paper folding (not all the folds were 1/4 paper folds, some were in btwn, like at 1/8) cubes, keyhole, pattern, topleftright were about the same as topscore&kaplan&registration material

i thought the topscore pacer worked well b/c it let me see which question i should be on. then it was just getting used to the speed.
- keyhole - i had a lot of trouble getting used to the keyholes until i realized that it usually was not as tricky as i made it out to be. conc. on curves and whether a corner is pointed or has a plateau at top and then just rotate it.
- topleftright - just practice and start to recognize that a curved or slant cutout can look just like a rect. most impt. just know how to rotate the obj from top to st8 to left. str8 to side view is you just take the right side (they give you options sometimes where it is the left side to trick you i guess)
- cube counting - i used the baron's mthd. write down # sides of cubes level by level, moving left to right, keeping track, then go back and answer.
- folding paper - after looking at a couple practice tests, you should start to see similar shapes. so practice until you get used to the shapes that they typically give you. bust out a real piece o' paper if need be.

keep representin' & don't give up. one day it'll all click and you'll be golden...

 

[Brand]

Keep studying hard. I don't mean to get you down, but the DAT is suppose to be difficult. Not everyone can be a dentist and the DAT is used to separate people. The main thing you need to do is put in the time. I can't emphasis that enough. PRACTICE, PRACTICE, and PRACTICE some more. Soon the PAT will become easy. I put in a helluva lot of time. Many people give up, but if you just keep trying it will pay off in the end. I just realized something...stop reading this forum and go study! Lets get you into dental school!

 

[jam21]

I didnt like pat that much. I was gettin good scores on the practice test but I didn't do as well on the real one. Just don't get too confident if you get like 25s on the Topscore..
Maybe it's just me. I couldn't really study or practice for PAT. I just felt like it was out of my control. But then, it's not that bad. I managed to get 18 even though I was freaking out when i was taking PAT portion.

good luck

 

[myameena]

Awwwww Thanks you guys. I know deep down that I can do anything I set my heart to, and my heart is set to doing this. I'm not one to give up easily and I have no thoughts of giving up anytime soon! Kaplan's big book has a CD and there is a pat section on there so I will take it. Is there a way to get a hold of the topscore CD or any other CDs (only - no books)? I have the barron's book so I'm going to read up in there for more hints.

I'll let ya know how it's going.....

 

[RSXer]

Originally posted by myameena
Is there a way to get a hold of the topscore CD or any other CDs (only - no books)?

Buy it through SDN! SDN has helped us all out so much, so try getting it through them. Click here

 

[crimson]

This might not sound like much of advise but I realized during my practice exams that I JUST COULDN'T DO top-front-end and keyhole problems. Further for all the times I answered randomly (yeah completely random) I did no better than doing it with some kind if reasoning. So for my real DAT's I basically answered at random for these two sections. Needless to say I ended up with avg score for my PAT but I don't think I could have done any better had I practiced more or applied the dozen or so tricks out there.

 

[lhamtse]

I agree with Crimson totaly...I really had a hard time with the top-front-end view...no matter how much I studied...I couldn't do those. On the actual test day...I took random guesses in that section. But...practice does help a little...so do PRACTICE, but don't waste too much time on it. Schools like UCONN base their decisions mainly on your science scores...you will definitely get somewhere if you have a relatively competitive science and academic average. However, a good PAT score do look good on the application.
LT

 

[lhamtse]

I meant totally...by the way...

 

[juan7677]

For the PAT, you just need to practice, practice and practice. Some ppl just seem to naturally get it and doesn't take them much effort to do well. But if your like me...just do alot of practice tests. I can't tell you how many practice tests I took to imrove my score.