<p>I know various test prep books all say "if you can eliminate 1 answer then guess" but I feel that I really suck at guessing, so do you guess on subject tests( I'm taking USH, but whatever)?</p>
<p>I never left a single question blank on the 13 standardized tests I took (albeit some were ACTs where there's no guessing penalty) ^^</p>
<p>Generally, when we say "guess" we mean, "look at the answer choices and choose the one that seems the most probable." In which case, not answering it seems somewhat illogical, since you already have somewhat of an idea, yeah? I mean, you might not be able to absolutely eliminate a single answer, but in your head, you usually have an idea of which one is *likely<a href="whether%20it%20be%20because%20it%20seems%20like%20the%20answer%20doesn't%20fit%20or%20just%20cause%20you%20haven't%20gotten%20a%20%22B%22%20answer%20choice%20in%20the%20last%2015%20questions%20;-">/i</a> ).</p>
<p>So yeah, if you ask me, always, **always** answer the questions. I mean, why do people do the lotto? Cause it's a small sacrifice (1/4 point) for a potential huge gain (1 point), right?</p>
<p>I tried that logic ("always guess, never leave blank") on practice tests, and it didn't work well.</p>
<p>I would rather leave blank than just guess, on practice tests that always resulted in higher scores for me, and on the real tests, I used my strategy and got very good scores.</p>
<p>I wouldn't even guess if I narrowed it down to 3 choices, and only maybe if I narrowed it down to 2, because the risk isn't worth it. Wrong guesses here and there add up, and even though it's only 1/4 point per wrong answer, it can lower your score dramatically if all or most of your guesses end up being wrong.</p>
<p>Guessing really gets you nowhere. The tests are designed so that if you guess randomly on a large number of questions, the net effect on your raw score will be zero. </p>
<p>For example, if you guessed on all 50 problems on one of the math tests, then, since there are five answer choices each, you will most likely get 50/5 = 10 questions right and 40 wrong. Those 40 wrong answers cause you to lose 40 * 1/4 = 10 points. Your total raw score then is 0.</p>
<p>If you're going to guess on very, very few questions, however, such as one or two on the entire test, then that's fine because getting them wrong won't affect your raw score since fractional scores are rounded to the nearest whole number.</p>
<p>People are very anti-guessing, but I'm pretty pro-guessing when you can narrow it (like the books say). Most people hear the "1/4 off" and panic. </p>
<p>My friend left about 40 wrong on bio and got a truly horrendous score, while I answered every one and got a 670 (I really should have left 5 blank when I couldn't narrow). </p>
<p>you won't know every answer to every question, and leaving a whole slew blank will probably only drive you crazier (i've already left 10 blank, crappppp) and probably physche you out for ones you DO know.</p>