# Perceptual Ability Test (PAT):

## Perceptual Ability Test (PAT) Section

The Perceptual Ability Test (PAT) is the second section of the DAT and for many students one of the most challenging. The PAT is designed to test your spatial visualization skills, like your ability to interpret two-dimensional (2D) representations of three-dimensional (3D) objects. These skills are necessary to your success as a dentist since you will need to construct mental images of teeth from X-rays, deal with casts and fillings, and otherwise work with complicated 2D and 3D objects.

There are 6 subsections in PAT section and the total number of questions is 90, with each subsection consisting of 15 questions. You have 60 minutes to answer PAT section. The subsections appear in order which are: Apertures, View Recognition, Angle Discrimination, Paper Folding, Cube Counting, and 3D Form Development.

## Cube Counting

In Figure A, how many cubes have two of their exposed sides painted?

A. 3 cubes
B. 7 cubes
C. 5 cubes
D. 6 cubes
E. 4 cubes

## Pattern Folding (3D form development)

The key to success in this section is practice; when you solve different types of questions in each subsection, you become more and more familiar with different types of questions, and you become faster in getting to the correct answer, so through practice, you can manage your time better while getting higher scores. With practice, this section can become your advantage in competition with other applicants, but if you don’t practice to be fast and/or accurate enough, you will have time management problems as well as seeing questions that are not familiar to you. The result will not be satisfactory. But you can secure a good advantage for yourself out of this challenging section, just through practice once you have mastered the concepts.

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