To discourage random guessing, the SAT imposes a penalty of 1/4 point for every wrong answer on a multiple choice question. How do they arrive at this fraction? On a 5-choice question, there is one correct choice and four incorrect ones, making the ratio 1:4. The classic advice is that if you can eliminate one or more of the incorrect choices, you have turned the odds in your favor so you should make a guess. That’s absolutely correct. However, this advice is better applied on the reading and writing sections than on a math section. On a reading section, you might know one or two of the words in the multiple choices and this can narrow down your selection. However, consider the situation with most math questions. You are presented with a problem and you can’t solve it at all. While an SAT prep course will show you ways to deal with this situation, you may not have any way to narrow down the choices. Therefore, the best SAT test-taking advice is to OMIT the question. If you review your scores from a PSAT or an SAT that you’ve previously taken, note how many penalty points you have accumulated for all the 1/4 penalties for wrong answers (many of which you would have to admit you guessed on). The only exception to this advice concerns where the problem is located on the test. If you’re pretty sure of your answer to problem #2, but not positive, go ahead and answer it because #2 is an easy problem and you’ve probably got it right. If you’re not so sure about #19, do not answer it, omit this very hard question and save yourself 1/4 point.

Tags: SAT Prep, SAT Preparation, SAT Test, Test Prep

Marty Rafson wrote the ESC math curriculum and has been an SAT math teacher, tutor, and curriculum developer for 30 years. He has been a high school math teacher for 36 years and a math department chairman for 25 years. He was also an adjunct professor at City College of New York School of Education.