<p>I read many study guides about educated guessing, but it never really helped me that much. :(</p>
<p>In a long passages (CR), I am always left with 2 answer choices that both seem like the right answer. </p>
<p>What should I do to pick the right answer? any suggestions?</p>
<p>Well, honestly, if it's down to 2, anything more than an educated guess would mean you know the answer. I don't think it gets any more advanced than narrowing it down, trying to solve the problem with the remaining two options, and then deciding which one to guess with if you just don't know. You need to solidly know the fundamentals if you want to do "advanced" educated guessing.</p>
<p>yeah, I agree with NancyDrew... also, though, with CR, you kinda have to get a feel of what the question wants, if that makes sense. Like, sometimes, both answers might even be correct, but there are subtle clues in the question as to how the testers think that can help you b.s. some of the section.
It's like sucking up to a teacher, only harder =)</p>
<p>A few quick tips:</p>
<p>1) Before you choose an answer, identify the difference between the two answers. If they seem basically the same to you, you are not ready to pick.</p>
<p>2) Make sure that you are looking in the <em>middle</em> of the choices for crucial details that might be irrelevant or incorrect.</p>
<p>if your down to two choices and you think both of them are right, then you definitely misread/misinterpreted either part of the passage or part of the question. Make sure any answer you pick is directly supported from textual information. Unless its a "suggest or imply" question, don't insinuate anything!</p>
<p>if it's a line-based question, go back and underline key words in that line. those words usually help you answer the question</p>
<p>i'd say that if you're thinking about guessing at all, you're approaching the test in the wrong way. rather than fine-tuning your guessing strategy, fine-tune your approaches to the various question types so that you can answer questions with certainty.</p>
<p>And how about if that certainty can only lead you to two choices, do you still guess?</p>
<p>in short, when you develop the right kind of certainty, there are no times (or, at least, very few times) when you come down to two choices. but if you <em>were</em> to come down to two choices, i'd say you skip the question. a guess on the SAT is very likely to be a wrong answer, which loses you raw points.</p>
<p>i know that's a little glib, but this isn't the time to get into a detailed discussion of every single kind of SAT question. hmmmm. let me try this another way:</p>
<p>every single real SAT math question has one correct answer choice. i think we'd all agree there's no disputing which answer choice is the best answer to a math question. for this reason, the best way to approach an SAT math question is with the attitude that there is a solution to the problem posed by the question, and that the proper method of attacking the question will yield the right answer. if we approached the math section by looking at a particular question and thinking, "hmmm . . . i dunno. i just kind of feel like the answer to this one is probably 12," we'd get almost every question wrong.</p>
<p>the problem is that most test-takers think this is a perfectly good way to approach the reading and writing questions. thinking "i'm pretty sure the author seems cynical in this passage, so i'll choose 'cynical' as my answer choice" or "this sentence just sounds like it flows better, so i'll pick it" is no better than trying to answer a math problem by following a hunch. SAT reading and writing questions have definite answers, just like SAT math questions do, and none of the correct answers can ever be argued.</p>
<p>most test-takers can't imagine a grammar or reading question that's not open to interpretation, because most test-takers have been taught in high school English classes to multiply possible interpretations for a particular text and to give as much leeway to every idea as possible. it's true that a question like "how does hamlet feel about his father?" would be open to multiple valid answers, but the SAT never asks questions like that.</p>
<p>so what i'm ultimately trying to say is that the SAT reading section is not a test where you want to wander through the questions without any sense of direction, trying to read someone's mind. it makes no more sense to say that you're certain two answers could both be correct on a reading question than it does to say that you're certain two answers could both be correct on a math question. the whole idea of guessing, as opposed to the idea of dismantling questions in a methodical way, is moving in the wrong direction.</p>
<p>i'm kind of tired at this moment and a little off my game, but i hope the above is a better explanation of what i mean.</p>
<p>Thank you all!</p>