Hi! I’m going to be taking my first (and hopefully only) SSAT test in November and I was wondering if it’s better for me to skip incredibly difficult questions instead of guessing them because if I guess wrong I get penalized. It seems to me as the best choice, but I’d like some clarification and maybe some helpful tips and strategies for the test?? I am HOPELESS in the verbal and I’ve been trying everything to boost my vocabulary but it seems like it’s not going to be that effective. Help!! I’m trying to get a 90 percentile score and I’m confident I’ll do well in math and hopefully well in reading but my verbal will bring me down. I’m applying for Exeter, Andover,Choate,Hotchkiss,and Middlesex( extremely competitive so I’m worried I won’t get in, but I have a feeling that a good SSAT score will really help my portfolio )
Got to the SSAT website. Do some research. Information is readily available.
https://ssat.org/prepare/test-taking-strategies/guessing-strategy
Yes, skip a few questions if you have no clue, but do not skip too much.
Take practice tests to improve your speed in getting through the test so that you have as much time as possible for the questions you don’t know the answer to right away.
They have changed this to eliminate the guessing penalty on the SAT, but I believe the SSAT still works as follows:
You lose 1/4 point for a wrong answer and gain a full point for a correct one.
Most students tends to leave too many blank. This is a very damaging strategy.
If you can eliminate 2 or more answers with confidence, you are better off guessing than leaving it blank. But guessing wildly if you don’t know anything will hurt you.
To score well, you need to get a lot of questions right. Getting 4 wrong is worth the same (negatively) as getting one correct.
@Mr.Wendal is correct.
Common belief is that you may get less than 25% chance of complete guessing, or you are likely to miss a question by changing answer when you are not sure. Both of them are proven incorrect by scientific researches.
The misconception is resulted from human tendency of remembering better when you failed.
A better strategy is to guess an answer regardless of the penalty when you don’t know the answer, and to change an answer when you have a second thought.