<p>My son took the SAT once and ACT twice as soph. ACT scores are better (SAT math was satisfactory at 740) without studying. He doesn't want to study, but I am insisting on a little practice here and there to raise CR. when he takes SAT again in May after junior year.</p>
<p>He enjoyed taking ACT much more than SAT. He absolutely hates to think of leaving any questions unanswered.</p>
<p>My question is, has anyone really noticed any significant improvement when leaving blank any question you just don't know on the SAT verses narrowing it to 2 and guessing? I think he could improve by this one factor. </p>
<p>If you have no idea what the answer is and you cannot eliminate any answers as obviosly wrong, leave it blank and don’t waste time. Use the extra time to find the answer of a question that you can get correct. An incorrect answer costs you more than a blank answer.</p>
<p>For my kids, if they could eliminate at least a few of the answers, they did better when they guessed. Both of my kids are good test-takers.
My kids were able to look over their tests (their school paid for them to get the tests back & booklets) and saw that the tests they got wrong would have still been their answers. For other kids, the answer might be different.
Your kid can do a practice test & check to see how he does with guessed answers. There IS a penalty for wrong answers vs. none for leaving blanks.</p>
<p>THere is a penalty for wrong answers, but it’s only a quarter of a a point. Given that there are 5 options on the SAT, if you guess on 5 consecutive questions, statistically you will get one right and 4 wrong. 1-4*(1/4)=0. In other words, guessing on all 5, should yield the same score as leaving all 5 blank.
Now, if you can eliminate just one answer on any question, it becomes statistically advantageous to guess. So, if you hate leaving any answer blank, don’t. Furthermore, if you can eliminate any options, you should definitely guess.</p>