The SAT is one of the most feared tests in America, but I am here to tell you a way to get extra points just for making random guesses.

The SAT grading scale gives you one point for each correct answer and it takes away one-fourth of a point for every incorrect answer. This is what allows you to get extra points.

Say that on any given section of the SAT you don't know five questions. This is very likely since the average student guesses about half of the time. Well, for each question there are five answers: A,B,C,D,E. If you were to guess you would have a one in five or 20% chance of getting the correct answer. Therefore, if you randomly guess on five questions, you will statistically get one right and four wrong. This gives you one point for the correct answer and it takes away 1/4 x 4 points. You break even and you neither recieve a point or lose any points. That's the basics, here's how to get some points.

The average student can usually eliminate one answer from every question on the SAT. So, if in a section you don't know four questions, just do your best to eliminate one of the five possible answers. This will leave you with four questions and four possible answers for each. If you randomely guess on each of the four questions you will statistically get one right and three wrong. This will give you one point for the correct answer and it will take away 1\4 x 3; which equals 3/4 of a point(Not a whole point). Therefore you come out with a 1/4 of a point for those four qestions.

It may not sound like much but the SAT automatically rounds that up to a full point which counts for ten more points on your actual score. You just got ten points for four random guesses. Trust me if you do this whenever you can(five or six times), it will really improve your score.

On the new-fangled adaptive SAT, there's even more reason to guess. You see, in adaptive testing, the questions presented to you are a function of your performance on earlier questions. That means that one additional correct answer in an early section can permit a whole range of scores that would have been inaccessible to an examinee who blew that answer. Does the adaptive SAT distinguish (for adaptive purposes) between wrong-guess mistakes and omitted-response mistakes? Perhaps someone will writeup the answer; if not, this definitely tips the balance further in favor of guessing if you can eliminate one or more distractors.

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