Using you knife to mark your carving

[NGupta]

Hey everyone,

 

I have a question regarding the manual dexterity section of the DAT. I took the Kaplan course over the summer and was taught to use my knife as a method of marking soap (very, very light indentations). I was also told these indentations are NOT taken into account when the final product is being marked. I'm just wondering what the general consensus is among those writing the DATs. Do you use a pencil? a knife? Do you think its a good idea to use a knife instead of a pencil? I actually tried using a pencil and found it got a little too time consuming - I'll adapt, however, if using a knife isn't a good idea. Thanks for the help

 

- Neil

[Kiel]

On the DAT your marked on your hand and eye coordination?

[Adversary]

Mark with knife... you want to practice doing that well so that you have more time to spend on carving your soap. Many of my colleagues like to use the knife method.

[guyver03]

I use the knive to mark the ends of the soap so that I get 2 perpendicular lines. As for the body, I use a sharp pensil. The markings on the soap are not considered into your final mark. So using a pencil is better than a knife, in case you nicked your soap by mistake.

[TBJ1]

Just to clarify, if we mark the soap using the knife, will we be penalized for any markings that it creates?

 

By markings, what I mean is if I am drawing a circumferential line and used the knife to create indentations, is it ok if at the very end, you can still see these indentations?