Accurate GUESSING techniques

[Hands4Surgery]

When you are confronted with a question that you absolutely have no clue about, what have you found to be the best technique to maximize your chance of making a scoring guess?

Here is what I do:

1) look at the question and decide that I absolutely have no clue how to answer it
2) find the one answer choice that is definitely incorrect trying to make the best judgement possible.
3) look for two answer choices that may say or result in a very similar answer and cross both of them out (this is not usually easy, but sometimes you can pinpoint them)
4) select the remaining answer choice and go.

Has anybody figured something else out or tried a different systematic approcach to improve the chances of making a scoring guess?

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[argama]

you nailed most of what I do.

I would add the "check units" if it's a PS/GChem question.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

2 usually doesn't work. 3 however is an amazing technique.

 

[MedPR]

When you are confronted with a question that you absolutely have no clue about, what have you found to be the best technique to maximize your chance of making a scoring guess?

Here is what I do:

1) look at the question and decide that I absolutely have no clue how to answer it
2) find the one answer choice that is definitely incorrect trying to make the best judgement possible.
3) look for two answer choices that may say or result in a very similar answer and cross both of them out (this is not usually easy, but sometimes you can pinpoint them)
4) select the remaining answer choice and go.

Has anybody figured something else out or tried a different systematic approcach to improve the chances of making a scoring guess?

#1 should never even happen. Study enough so you have some idea how to answer every single question on your test.

 

[argama]

oh I think you forgot the "Choose the answer choice unlike the others." Like 3 bases and 1 acid, I'm choosing the acid.

 

[Hands4Surgery]

oh I think you forgot the "Choose the answer choice unlike the others." Like 3 bases and 1 acid, I'm choosing the acid.

In my reasoning, I would cross out the acid, and see differences in bacisitiy between the trhee remaining choices..... just me.

 

[Hands4Surgery]

I would add the "check units" if it's a PS/GChem question.

Absolutely. Not only the units, but if you solve for a variable in an equation, make sure that whatever you pick, at least has the correct, direct/inverse relationship to what is on the other side... What was next to your variable(multiplied before) better be in the bottom on the other side of the equal sign once the variable is solved for.... Then... may God be with you!

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

oh I think you forgot the "Choose the answer choice unlike the others." Like 3 bases and 1 acid, I'm choosing the acid.

You'd still want to apply some logic to that answer though. I mean probably in most cases the acid might really be a freebie.

 

[Hands4Surgery]

Does anybody have a good strategy to guess on the roman numeral questions?

I have heard that there is a way to narrow down your choices in these types of questions. Anybody?

 

[argama]

You'd still want to apply some logic to that answer though. I mean probably in most cases the acid might really be a freebie.

correct, this is not an "across the board technique" but an educated guess taking into account the context and question topic. Sure it's not always going to work and sometimes that acid is the freebie eliminated answer.

 

[Postictal Raiden]

In my reasoning, I would cross out the acid, and see differences in bacisitiy between the trhee remaining choices..... just me.

+1

I wouldn't choose the acid because it may be too obvious to be the right answer. However, I could be wrong and it's a trick question.

Bottom line, I second what MedPR said, study well so you could at least have some intuition about which could be the correct answer.

 

[OCDOCDOCD]

Does anybody have a good strategy to guess on the roman numeral questions?

I have heard that there is a way to narrow down your choices in these types of questions. Anybody?

1. Take a quick glance at the answer choices and see if there's a numeral that's in all four of them. If there is, ignore it because obviously it's correct.
2. Go through the remaining numerals in order
3. If you know a numeral is correct, then eliminate every answer choice that doesn't have that numeral in it. Likewise, if you know a numeral is incorrect, eliminate every answer choice that has that numeral in it.
4. If you're lucky this will have eliminated every answer choice except for one, even if you had no clue about the other numeral(s). Otherwise you should have at least narrowed your choices down.

Also, it's common for numerals to support or contradict each other. Look out for this. If there's a numeral that you know is right and it contradicts a numeral you're unsure of, go ahead and assume that the numeral you're unsure of is wrong. Likewise, if there's a numeral you know is wrong and another numeral you're unsure of agrees with it, you can probably eliminate that one too. Finally, if there's a numeral you know is right and another numeral supports or is supported by it, then if you otherwise have no clue go ahead and assume it's right too.

 

[Integrated MCAT Course]

If you're down to two answers, and each is vying for your choice as the 'best' answer. Step back and see if one is the 'least worse'.