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Should You Guess on the SAT?

The answer is pretty simple: yes.

On past versions of the SAT, students were penalized 0.25 points for incorrect answers, so students were advised not to guess.

However, on the current version of the SAT, as of 2016, students should definitely guess on questions that they don’t know the answers to.

It is definitely in the test-takers best interest to guess.

Why you should guess on the SAT

If you don’t know the answer to a question, you can leave it blank or answer it.

Blank: 0 points

Guess wrong: 0 points

Guess right: 1 point

If you leave a question blank, you’re definitely going to get 0 points for the questions. If you guess, you may get 0 points or 1 point, so you should guess on the SAT for questions that you don’t know.

Impact on Your SAT Score

Example 1:

Let’s say over the course of the entire test, there are 16 questions that you don’t know the answers to.

There are 4 anwser choices, so you have a 1 out of 4 chance of answering the questions correctly.

If you randomly guess on all 16 questions, you will probably get 4 right.

The additional 4 questions could lead to 20-50 more points on your score.

Example 2:

Let’s again look at an example in which there are 16 questions that you don’t know the answers to.

However, you’re able to eliminate 2 of the wrong answers for each of them.

Now, if you randomly guess, you’ll have a 1 out of 2 chance of answering the questions correctly.

If you take an educated guess on all 16 questions, you will probably get 8 right.

The additional 8 questions could lead to 40-100 more points on your score.

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