Stumped on a test, what do you do?

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

<p>So, I was after school with my Calculus teacher today and he was looking for my test to give to me since I had a question about math-thing and as he was flipping through the tests, I noticed that one girl in my class had left half of the test blank - it was 10 questions, 8 multiple choice, 2 open responses, and she left 4 MC blank and one open response blank... my teacher didn't even mark it wrong, he just wrote a giant question mark. </p>

<p>This made me wonder - when you're stumped on a test, whether it be a single or multiple questions, what do you do? Do you just leave it blank? Guess? BS some type of answer/reasoning in hopes for partial credit?</p>

<p>I think that when it comes to MC, if I totally have no idea, I just try to eliminate an obviously wrong answer and then guess from there. I won't leave it blank, because blank = 100% wrong, while guessing means that you have a 20-25% chance of getting it right.</p>

2

<p>cry</p>

<p>lol no rlly i cried during a physics test once</p>

3

<p>Think calmly about what I remember, eliminate everything I possibly can and pick the answer that looks the best. For free response, BS your work and write as much as you can down.</p>

4

<p>For tests where you are expected to solve a problem or prove a result, best is just to try stuff. For a calculus test, try different u-substitutions, or maybe a few cases. Try to simplify the problem to one you know how to solve.</p>

<p>For example, I sometimes had a hard time remembering whether d/dx a^x is (a^x)(ln a) or (a^x)/(ln a). But you shouldn’t panic! All you need to do is realize that when a increases, the graph of y = a^x is steeper, so its derivative increases. Boom, problem solved.</p>