{"id":11763,"date":"2016-09-18T23:17:40","date_gmt":"2016-09-19T04:17:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grockit.com\/blog\/?p=11763"},"modified":"2020-09-11T20:42:49","modified_gmt":"2020-09-11T20:42:49","slug":"dat-pat-hole-punching-strategy-symmetry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpapp.kaptest.com\/study\/dat\/dat-pat-hole-punching-strategy-symmetry\/","title":{"rendered":"DAT PAT Hole Punching Strategy: Symmetry"},"content":{"rendered":"

For each Hole Punching question in the Perceptual Ability (PAT) section of the DAT, a square piece of paper is folded one, two, or three times, and then\u00a0one or more holes are punched at specific locations. You are then asked to unfold the paper mentally\u00a0and determine the final locations of the hole(s).
\nThe paper is always folded toward the front (out of the screen and toward you) to allow you to see the\u00a0final positions of paper. The edges of the paper in the new position are represented by solid lines, and\u00a0the original locations where the paper used to be are represented by dashed lines. The folds are not\u00a0arbitrary; in fact, there are only four possible types of first folds, as follows:
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\nHowever, note that each of these four first folds can occur on any edge; for example, the corner fold\u00a0shown in the bottom right can be on any of the four corners, not just the bottom-left corner.
\nAfter the first fold, the paper may be folded one or more additional times. Since these occur after\u00a0the first fold, a wide range of combinations exist, but all the folds still follow the same basic patterns.\u00a0In the following example, you can see the paper folded diagonally in the first fold and then folded\u00a0halfway down before a hole is punched.
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\nMentally unfolding the paper gives the following:
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\nIn the answer choices, punched holes are indicated by filled circles on a grid of 16 possible positions.\u00a0These 16 positions represent the only possible final holes, and no partial holes will appear in the\u00a0correct answer. Here, the correct answer includes two punched holes.
\nA helpful strategy for Hole Punching questions is to eliminate answer choices by looking at the\u00a0symmetry of the first fold. Because the unfolding step will be the opposite of that initial fold, any\u00a0position with a hole on one side of the line of symmetry created by the first fold will be mirrored by\u00a0another position with the same hole.
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\nAny answer choice that does not have the corresponding line of symmetry can be eliminated\u00a0immediately regardless of any other factors. Note that, if the first fold does not bisect the paper into\u00a0two equal parts, you should only look at the overlapping portion of the paper and can ignore any other\u00a0sections. For example, if the first fold is a corner fold, the line of symmetry will be diagonal across\u00a0that quadrant (one-fourth) of the paper, and the other three-fourths can be ignored when evaluating\u00a0the paper\u2019s symmetry:
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\nSpend only five minutes on the Hole Punching section, which means\u00a0taking an average of 20 seconds on each question. This will allow you spend more time on the other, more time-consuming perceptual ability questions on the DAT. This is a very short amount of time, though, so spend time\u00a0practicing completing these questions both quickly and accurately.
\n< Previous: Angle Ranking<\/a>
\nNext: Cube Counting<\/a> >
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DAT Hole Punching Tips and Strategies<\/h3>
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