Guessing

On the SAT, answering a question incorrectly is more costly than leaving it blank. Your scaled score out of 800 on each test is found by first calculating your raw score. For every question you answer correctly, one point is added to your raw score. For every question you answer incorrectly, 1/4 point is subtracted from your raw score. If you leave a question blank, no points are added to or subtracted from your raw score. Because of this so-called “guessing penalty,” students are often advised not to guess or a least to exercise great caution in guessing, only doing so when they can eliminate one, two, or three answer choices, depending on who you talk to. Such caution is tempting, since it is comforting to know that you are not losing 1/4 point per question by guessing incorrectly. However, such a strategy does not maximize your score on the SAT. Continue reading →