Guessing and the answer eliminator

There's no penalty for a wrong answer in either section. A blank and a wrong answer both score zero, so a guess can only help you. With 2:00 left in a module, put an answer in every blank. Flag and move on has the order to do it in.

Guessing comes last, though. First you cross out every choice you can show is wrong. That often gets you to the answer, and when it doesn't, you're guessing from fewer choices.

You don't have to explain everything wrong with a choice. One word or number that doesn't fit is enough to cross it out.

Say a question asks what this trial found:

“In a six-month trial, steel panels with a new coating rusted less than steel panels without it. The researchers concluded that the coating tends to slow rusting.”

In Reading and Writing, the fault you find will usually be one of four kinds. Each of these choices is wrong in a different way:

The Reading and Writing guide goes through each of these checks in more detail.

How long a choice is doesn't count either way. A long, detailed choice still has to match the passage, and a short, plain one can be the answer.

1. Turn it on with the crossed-out ABC button at the right end of the bar above the question, or press Ctrl+Alt+O. A small circled letter appears to the right of each choice.
2. Click a circled letter to cross out that choice, or press Ctrl+Alt+1 to Ctrl+Alt+4 for A to D. The choice stays on the screen with a line through it.
3. Changed your mind? Click the Undo link that replaces the circle, or click the crossed-out choice to pick it.

On our practice tests the eliminator stays on from question to question until you turn it off, so turn it on at question 1 and leave it. Crossing out the choice you've already picked clears your answer there, so check that the question still has an answer before you leave it.

In Math, the question itself can rule out choices before you calculate anything. Read it through to the last line and check these:

• A number of students or a distance can't be negative, so a negative choice is out.
• A count has to be a whole number. If the question asks how many buses are needed, 7.5 is out.
• If the question asks for hours, a choice that gives your answer in minutes is wrong.
• Say your work gives $x = 4$, but the last line asks for $2x + 1$. If 4 is a choice, it's only a step on the way. Put 4 in for $x$ and you get $2(4) + 1 = 9$.

A math figure is drawn to scale unless it has the note “Figure not drawn to scale” below it. With no note, you can estimate from the picture.

Say a side with no label looks about half as long as a side labeled 10, and the choices are 1, 4.5, 6 and 18. You can cross out 1 and 18 by eye. That leaves 4.5 and 6, and you'll need the math to choose between them.

If the figure does have the note, what you see can be off. Work only from the numbers and marks on it, and from what the question says.

When you're down to two, find the exact spot where they differ. It's often a single word or number. Rereading the two choices won't tell you which is right, so go back to the passage or the question and check just that spot.

Take the coating passage again: “In a six-month trial, steel panels with a new coating rusted less than steel panels without it.” Say you're left with these two:

• “The coating tends to slow rusting in steel.”
• “The coating tends to slow rusting in metals of all kinds.”

They differ only at the end. The trial tested steel and nothing else, so the second choice goes further than the passage does.

When there's nothing left to check, pick from the choices you haven't crossed out. A blind guess among four choices is right 1 time in 4. If you've correctly crossed out one choice, your guess is right 1 time in 3, and with two crossed out it's 1 in 2. Those odds only matter once you've stopped working the question. They never tell you which of the remaining choices is right.

The answer letters don't tell you anything either. Getting B three times in a row doesn't mean one of them is wrong, and the idea that C comes up most is no reason to pick C here.

Then click Mark for Review to flag the question, and go on to the next one. Flag and move on covers when to leave a question and when to come back to it.

A grid-in has no choices, so there's nothing to cross out and no eliminator. You still guess, by typing a number the question allows. Use the setup to pick it:

• A percent of a group is between 0 and 100.
• A count of people or things is a whole number.
• In a figure drawn to scale, you can estimate a length from the picture.

Don't type 0 out of habit. If the question asks how long a ramp is, 0 can't be the answer.