<p>One of my friends from high school initially scored a 16 on his ACT. His parents hired him a tutor and he brought his score up to a 27(E:31 M:22 R30 SR: 26). He does not actually know the material well and has pseudo-skills. He told me the lady taught him how to guess correctly. I indeed believe that is a fluke.</p>
<p>There are strategies for guessing if you don’t know the answer, I actually signed up for a class on guessing SAT answers. They do try to trick you sometimes. In my SAT Preparation course, the teacher said that sometimes if you’re feeling rushed, you’ll pick the first answer that sounds good without reading all the answers. In response to that, on many questions, they put answers that SOUND right, before the answers that ARE right. </p>
<p>Although, it does sound a little odd for your friend to have guessed that well. If it truly was guessing, I wonder if he could score that well a second time.</p>
<p>There is a certain amount of trickiness to this type of test. In a way, they are trying to see whether you just know the material in a shallow, rote way, or in greater intuitive depth. Particularly the math. But some students can learn to catch the tricks without actually having an in depth knowledge of the material.</p>