<p>Okay I'm really confused as whether or not to guess on the ssat. Any advice? What's the difference between guessing, and leaving the answer blank?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>I'm pretty sure that if you guess, you get 1 1/4 point subtracted, and if you omit you don't get any points added or subtracted. I'm not completely sure, though. I left my SSAT prep book at home.</p>
<p>If you guess and get a question right, you obviously get full credit (1pt.)
If you guess and get a question wrong, 0.25pt. is deducted
If you omit, you neither gain a point nor lose a point.</p>
<p>If you can narrow your choices down to 2~3 answers, then I suggest that you guess :)</p>
<p>Scores are based on the number of questions you answer correctly minus **one-quarter **point for each question you answer incorrectly. (Not 1 1/4 point)</p>
<p>Although no points are awarded or deducted for questions left unanswered, you will be penalized for questions answered incorrectly.</p>
<p>Best to leave an answer blank if you haven't a clue to the answer. However, the more questions you answer, the highter your potential score.</p>
<p>If answers were randomly generated out of a possible 5 answers and answers were randomly chosen out of 5 answers, the expected rate of return by those pure guesses -- if every answer was guessed -- would be 0. No points gained. No points lost. Guessing where you're totally clueless is a break even proposition...on average over many answers:</p>
<p>+1 -.25 - .25 - .25 - .25 = 0</p>
<p>0 is the same return you get for omitting an answer. So -- in a purely statistical, random model -- whether you bubble in an answer or omit an answer makes no difference when you can't eliminate any of the choices.</p>
<p>With 1 answer eliminated, the odds shift in favor of the test taker:</p>
<p>+1 - .25 - .25 - .25 + 0 = +.25</p>
<p>If you have 4 questions where you have eliminated just one choice and you randomly bubble answers from the remaining 4 choices, you should -- statistically speaking -- get an additional 1 point to your raw score (over omitting choices for those 4 questions). Of course you could lose 1 point. Or you could gain 4 points. But, on average, test takers would -- in theory -- gain 1 point for every 4 questions in which just 1 choice is eliminated.</p>
<p>With 2 answers eliminated, you do even better obviously:</p>
<p>+1 - .25 - .25 + 0 + 0 = .50</p>
<p>With 3 answers eliminated (50/50 choice):</p>
<p>+1 - .25 + 0 + 0 + 0 = +.75</p>
<p>Again, over 4 questions, the best you can do is gain 4 points and the worst you can do is lose 1 point. But now, with 3 choices eliminated, you're expected value is + 3 points for every 4 such questions.</p>
<p>Of course, if you eliminated 4 answers (or, better yet, know the correct answer), you just get that 1 point (or 4 over 4 questions). (The caveat, of course, is that you make your eliminations with absolute certainty and you have a 100% record when it comes to deciding that a choice can be eliminated.)</p>
<p>Mathematically speaking, you should guess on questions where you've eliminated 1 choice. You won't get much, but -- on average -- you'll get something. </p>
<p>The question, then, is whether you should guess on EVERY question. Statistically, there's nothing to be gained (or lost) by that approach. But that's statistically...where choices are randomly distributed and your answers are made in a purely random fashion.</p>
<p>But that's not what happens during a test. Even where you can't eliminate even one choice, it's still not entirely random. There's still some gut reaction or hunch or even a "vibe" -- good or bad. You're a fairly intelligent young person...so there is some value assigned by your brain function that make this choice not quite as random as a purely mathematical process that we've been discussing. </p>
<p>The deeper question I think you need to consider is whether you are good with your gut reactions and hunches in standardized tests. And I would suggest that if you're good with hunches, you should bubble away for all questions that you've considered. And if you're not so "lucky" with these tests, you should avoid being an aggressive bubbler.</p>
<p>Some people who are bad "guessers" and you need to know if you're one of these people. I'm talking about the people who outfox themselves and use triple-reverse psychology to second-guess their hunches before settling on a "random" guess. These people migrate to wrong answers like Canadian geese to warm weather. They probably aren't even so good at knowing when an answer has been eliminated...because they may tend to eliminate correct answers. These people should avoid random bubbling.</p>
<p>Before you settle on a guessing strategy, you should know what kind of standardized test taker you are. If you lick your chops going into these things because you own every test made that's scored by machines detecting the spatial distribution of #2 graphite, I wouldn't leave a blank answer except -- maybe -- for questions you didn't reach due to time constraints. If, however, you're one of those people who underperform on standardized tests and you pwn your classmates with your knowledge in most classes but can't measure up to them on standardized tests...you need to get the statistics helping you before you bubble. I would advise against this type of test-taker bubbling in everything. I might even caution against bubbling in with 1 answer eliminated if you're unlucky at these things.</p>
<p>Wait, this seems to easy. Does this mean that if I answer one easy question correctly but omit all other questions, I will get 100%?</p>
<p>If you answer one easy question but omit all the others it will be 1 correct, 59 omitted, out of 60. So, your score will be 1/60..</p>
<p>Yeah, the idea is to get as many points as possible. That's why I submit to you that people who are good at standardized test-taking are well-advised to grab some more points by guessing even when they haven't eliminated any choices. For them the odds work in their favor...even if mathematically it's break-even.</p>