Tips for the PAT:
Perceptual Ability Test
Oh the lovely Perceptual Ability Test. For me, it was definitely the most frustrating portion of the DAT. There are no classes that you can take to get better at it. And you probably haven't seen anything like it in your undergrad courses. It's a frustrating portion because there are questions that involve any and all of the following challenges: ranking angles that differ by 1 degree, folding odd objects, hole punching, and so much more awesome fun...
The best advice that I can offer you about this part is this:
it takes time to master this part of the DAT. Be patient with yourself. Plan ahead.
Be consistent and work to understand the answer.
it takes time to master this part of the DAT. Be patient with yourself. Plan ahead.
Be consistent and work to understand the answer.
I remember being frustrated in the beginning because I was good at my science courses, so I sped through those, relatively speaking. But each time I sat down for this section, I got so upset because I felt defeated and stupid. The concept of it seemed so easy, yet I was getting the very high majority of them incorrect. So, I followed my dad's advice and took my time with it.
5 tips to help you on the PAT of the DAT
Tip 1: From experience, this is my most important advice to you concerning the PAT: Rather than initially trying to solve the problems in the allotted time constraints of the DAT real test, forgot about the time and just focus on understanding the concepts. Honestly, the speed will come. But it's important for you to remove that added pressure of the time and just focus on the concepts. Adding the additional stress will only distract you, leading to further anxiety and disappointment (speaking from experience).
Tip 2: Only doing ~5 of each of the 6 categories each day, unless you really actually enjoy this section and you want to have "fun" with it. It can definitely be defeating getting one after the other wrong. Not to mention it can be time consuming, and you do need to study your science and math areas as well. So, focus on really understanding how those few questions are solved. Remember any tricks you pick up when figuring out the solution. It's better to do a few questions correctly than to speed through a lot of them just to claim that you did more practice, when all you really did was accumulate more red marks on the test booklet.
Tip 3: Make sure you understand why you go the question right. Maybe a lucky guess was the thing that really added the green checkmark to your booklet. That's great, but unfortunately there's no luck during the DAT. Making sure that you know what you're doing under the anxiety-ridden scenario during Test Day is absolutely critical. Prove to yourself that you can re-work the question, get it correct, and then re-teach it to yourself. It's really easy to just check mark the question and move along, but really try to put in that extra effort. Remember that studying at your desk at home is a very low stress environment. Use this time to work out the kinks so that you'll be calm as a clam when you add the pressures of the real DAT on Test Day.
Tip 4: Videos are your best friend! I'm a very visual learner, so watching someone literally hole punching the paper, unfold it, and show you the resulting holes was super helpful for me. There are some all over YouTube, but I've listed some of my favorites at the end of this post. Additionally, for the hole punching portion, I actually took a blank paper and folded the paper and hole punched to physically simulate the problem. I did this over and over until my mind as able to take control over the trick. Do whatever sort of technique works for you. Remember that you can't bring anything in during test day, so you've got to learn how to spin and twist objects in your mind. But when you're just getting the hang of it, take your time and work the problem.
Tip 5: Go with your gut. My least favorite category of this section was the angles. If you haven't had the privilege of studying for the DAT yet, this part is tricky. There are 4 questions, and each of the answers differ about 1-2 degrees from one another. Oh, and the angles are flipped in different angles. So that's fun. For these questions, I would highly advise looking at the angles and going with your gut. Use the answer choices if you're stuck to make sure that the sequence you're thinking is actually possible. The answer has to be there!
Tip 2: Only doing ~5 of each of the 6 categories each day, unless you really actually enjoy this section and you want to have "fun" with it. It can definitely be defeating getting one after the other wrong. Not to mention it can be time consuming, and you do need to study your science and math areas as well. So, focus on really understanding how those few questions are solved. Remember any tricks you pick up when figuring out the solution. It's better to do a few questions correctly than to speed through a lot of them just to claim that you did more practice, when all you really did was accumulate more red marks on the test booklet.
Tip 3: Make sure you understand why you go the question right. Maybe a lucky guess was the thing that really added the green checkmark to your booklet. That's great, but unfortunately there's no luck during the DAT. Making sure that you know what you're doing under the anxiety-ridden scenario during Test Day is absolutely critical. Prove to yourself that you can re-work the question, get it correct, and then re-teach it to yourself. It's really easy to just check mark the question and move along, but really try to put in that extra effort. Remember that studying at your desk at home is a very low stress environment. Use this time to work out the kinks so that you'll be calm as a clam when you add the pressures of the real DAT on Test Day.
Tip 4: Videos are your best friend! I'm a very visual learner, so watching someone literally hole punching the paper, unfold it, and show you the resulting holes was super helpful for me. There are some all over YouTube, but I've listed some of my favorites at the end of this post. Additionally, for the hole punching portion, I actually took a blank paper and folded the paper and hole punched to physically simulate the problem. I did this over and over until my mind as able to take control over the trick. Do whatever sort of technique works for you. Remember that you can't bring anything in during test day, so you've got to learn how to spin and twist objects in your mind. But when you're just getting the hang of it, take your time and work the problem.
Tip 5: Go with your gut. My least favorite category of this section was the angles. If you haven't had the privilege of studying for the DAT yet, this part is tricky. There are 4 questions, and each of the answers differ about 1-2 degrees from one another. Oh, and the angles are flipped in different angles. So that's fun. For these questions, I would highly advise looking at the angles and going with your gut. Use the answer choices if you're stuck to make sure that the sequence you're thinking is actually possible. The answer has to be there!
Here are some videos of the various categories that I found most helpful. I'm working on getting a promo code for y'all for some other amazing sources, and I'll post that as soon as I get something!
Helpful PAT Youtube videos
final words
If you have any questions about the PAT or any other sections of the DAT, please feel free to reach out to me! I absolutely LOVE helping this community, so I'm more than happy to answer anything that I can! Best of luck with this portion. You're gonna rock it!