<p>What's your take on guessing? RocketReview says to guess no matter what but Grammatix says guessing isn't worth it. For those of you who have gotten 2200+, what is your strategy?</p>
<p>I believe guessing goes like this:</p>
<p>Let's say you miss 1 question(out of the 54 math questions). So that's a raw score of 53.75, which is rounded up to 54, which equals 800. 53.5 is also rounded up to 54. Now when you get 3 questions wrong, that's when it's rounded down from 53.24 to 53. Of course you don't know for sure that you answer all the other questions correctly and you might have very well missed some of those. If you're trying to get a 2200, then GUESS. Take into account that 4 MATH questions wrong is minus 5 since -4 + 4(-.25)=-5. The curves are different on each SAT, but for a 700+ on each section, 4 missed on the math and 8 missed on the CR are your limits. That should help you. </p>
<p>Let's say that you've just finished your entire SAT and you're very confident about all your other answers: you could guess on one or two of them(even if you can't remember the question, but sometimes you can keep a question in mind and the 1-3 answer choices you know were not the answer) and it wouldn't hurt you, but that's only if you're confident on the others.</p>
<p>By Grammatix laws, an absolute NO</p>
<p>Let me tell you this: if I hadn't guessed I wouldn't have scored 1520/1600 in SAT I and 1540/1600 in Physics and World History SAT II.</p>
<p>If you want to score highly, you'll have to guess, guess, guess. Some people are just good with standardized tests and choose the right answer. Of course the trick is the following: it's a matter of probability.</p>
<p>First, eliminate all the answer choices you know are wrong. If you have to guess between ONLY two answers, think of the two possible outcomes. 50% chance you get it right and win 1 raw score point, and 50% chance you get it wrong and lose .25 raw score points. As you can see, it is clear that you have more to win than you have to lose.</p>
<p>If you have to guess between THREE choices, think of the possible outcomes. There's 33% chance that you win one raw score point, and 66% that you lose .25 raw score points. The way I see it, although it's twice as probable that you choose a wrong answer, it will be four times more profitable to pick the right answer.</p>
<p>If you have to choose between 4 or 5 choices ... leave it blank!</p>
<p>Anyway, if you plan to score highly, you should always feel something in your gut ... maybe it will work, maybe it won't. Just know yourself.</p>
<p>This is how I did and it worked for me. I am sure that if I left blank every question I did not know, I would have scored much, much lower on all my tests.</p>
<p>Try the ACT, also. It's easier.</p>
<p>Considering the SAT, I only took it once and I guessed on it. Bad Strategy.</p>
<p>I received a 1640/2400 because I guessed.</p>
<p>i have a 2210. i didn't leave any blank. i agree with rahoul.</p>
<p>^ thats the first time i have ever seen a post by you outside of the cafe.</p>
<p>RahuolVA, -1 on math would we a raw score of 52.75, not 53.75.
You forgot to account for the additional point you would've obtained if you got the right answer, so not an 800. But I still agree, you must guess to obtain 2200+</p>
<p>I can't believe I forgot about that! Now that just makes it even harder and more difficult, but you can still guess 2 to the piont where you wouldn't lose a raw point because of guessing. The deadliest section on the math section is the Hard section on the Grid Ins because the probability of getting those questions right is how much practice, skill, and luck(of being familiar with it). Sure even the hard MC are difficult, but you have a better chance on them</p>
<p>Guess guess guess you should always have at least a vague idea and 1+ answer choices narrowed down.</p>
<p>I dont understand Yellow Jacket's justification!</p>
<p>For each question that was never answered correctly, you don't get the raw point that it offered. So let's say you missed 3 questions. You go from a 54 to a 51 because you didn't get those raw points. Now if you guessed on them, it's a minus .75, so now you're down to 50.25, which is rounded down to 50. If you answer 4 incorrectly, you're getting in that low 700 range for the Math. If you omit 5-6, then you might not get the 700. If you guessed C for all those questions(say you've finished the test, can't look at the questions, but know you have to get some of those omitted corect), you could get 2 or 3 of them maybe correct. But then the ones incorrect would bring it down a little. (the test makers do this to balance it out). But the danger is that you don't know for sure that you answered al the other questiosn correctly, and in many cases, you'll surely lose raw points over some careless mistake. You can't be making those careless mistakes in the first place to get a 700+ on math. You can't miss 5-6 questions, and if you guess and get 2-3 of them right, you might lose -.75 or -1, but you still gained one in the end to increase your score, which is why you should guess.</p>
<p>Hello ,</p>
<p>I am the parent of 11 grade international student.One of my friend send this link to me. I hope there are parents who is worrying about the university of their kids. </p>
<p>I have one question, my daughter took 3 SAT subjects this june exam . Although she decided not to enter Physics exam she was not able to cancel it before the exam and she took it also and I guess the result will not be good. She will take once more in November , she is planning to apply Yale , is this low grade effects her admission chance. </p>
<p>Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>@ safiye
Make a thread.</p>
<p>On topic, always guess, unless for some reason you can't eliminate a single choice.</p>
<p>just use statistics for when you should guess. it doesnt matter if you are scoring higher or less than 2200, as long as odds favor you, do it</p>
<p>When you're reasoning, you're thinking very smartly. When you've given up and guess, you all of a sudden go into a "stupid" mode(sometimes) where you choose the answer that you like the most, which is often a trick choice.</p>
<p>The SAT is a reasoning test. No answer is a guess.</p>
<p>For the most part, I'd agree that if you can narrow it down to two or three answers, then its beneficial to guess. However, if you can answer all but one or two of the questions in each section, sometimes its beneficial to leave one blank. Going back to probability, on the hard questions, four of every five people who pick an answer pick the wrong one. Even if you have narrowed it down to two answers and cannot choose between them, it is usually more effective to find a careless mistake in the first ten questions of the section than to guess on the last page</p>
<p>My take on guessing is that you should always guess. </p>
<p>Suppose you take the exam twice, and both times, there are 20 questions you don't know. After taking the two exams, you get to keep the highest score. Basically, you want to maximize the expected value of the highest of the two scores, and this is done by increasing the variance of the scores. Guessing increases variance, so it is your friend in this case.</p>
<p>To see this a little more clearly, let's go to the extreme. Suppose you can take the exam 100 times, and keep your best score. Clearly you want to guess here, because you're almost certainly get very lucky on one of the exams, and that's the score you get to use. The same concept applies when you take the exam twice.</p>