How to learn to guess and proceed with confidence? Help!

[roycer]

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The writers of the MCAT know that people taking the test strive for perfection...something almost impossible to do on the MCAT. Hence, a strong tactic probably used by all people who have scored high on the MCAT is to be able to guess on a question (or mark) and proceed with confidence. Furthermore, guessing after not wasting a lot of time on a question is also a skill (my problem is that I give up and guess after spending like 3 minutes on a question). To those who do well on practice tests/the real MCAT:

1) On average how many questions (break it down for each section if you can) do you guess on because you have no idea what the answer is?
2) On average how many questions (break it down for each section if you can) do you guess on because you can't decide between 2 answer choices?
3) After guessing (or marking), how are you able to proceed with confidence and not get discouraged?

#2) is a big problem for me in VR, since I have a hard time guessing knowing I have only 2 choices to choose from. Guessing with confidence is a technique that I must learn. Any advice??

 

[RPedigo]

1) On average how many questions (break it down for each section if you can) do you guess on because you have no idea what the answer is?

You really need to define guess. If you mean "I have no idea what the answer could possibly be, so I am going to take a completely random guess with no logical input", then the answer is never. If by guess you mean "I wouldn't bet my life on this answer, but I am making an educated guess that has support from the passage or from my previous knowledge", then quite often. Verbal is almost always an educated guess; the sciences, much less-so, since there's a good chance that I would bet my life on some of the answers that I give, but not all.

2) On average how many questions (break it down for each section if you can) do you guess on because you can't decide between 2 answer choices?

I think on May 25th when I took my MCAT it might have happened 5 times per section, give or take. But again, this is not a guess in the strict sense of the word; I did not flip a coin in my head and choose one. I made an educated reasoning on why one might be better than the other one, and chose the one that I believed was more correct. However, this of course is a judgment call, and so I was not 100% certain of my answer.

3) After guessing (or marking), how are you able to proceed with confidence and not get discouraged?

Just assume all your judgment calls are the right ones, and when you know you got a question right, let that occupy your thoughts. Hopefully you'll luck out and the first passage on your form will be easy, so it sets you in the good mindset. For me, that wasn't the case, so when I finished the Physical Sciences section I had to go back and fix 6-7 errors that I made on the first two passages alone. Never guess. Always think about why one answer would be right, and the rest wrong, and go with it. This serves two purposes: (1) you have a greater chance of getting it right, (2) if you think you got it right, you won't let it mess up the rest of the test. If you just guess, you're going to think "oh god I'm not getting into medical school"... if you logically reason it, you walk away thinking "you know, I think I got that question right".

For the record, I refuse to mark questions, because I think they'll occupy your thoughts and make you nervous while taking the rest of the exam. Just answer the question, and if you finish early, you'll probably know where it is, so just hop to that passage and try it again. Marking is just nerve-wracking for me.


Hope this helps! Try to define more specific questions and I'd be happy to assist.

 

[roycer]

Thanks for the reply RPedigo! Sorry for not being clear in my explanations. From what I remember in the last time I wrote the MCAT, there were some problems that I had no idea how to approach (in PS and BS) in terms of calculations or reasoning. Thus, for those questions I almost had to make a complete guess for the answer. Others though, I did make an educated guess. RPedigo, on average how long did you spend on a particular question before deciding to move on and making an educated guess?

 

[RPedigo]

Thanks for the reply RPedigo! Sorry for not being clear in my explanations. From what I remember in the last time I wrote the MCAT, there were some problems that I had no idea how to approach (in PS and BS) in terms of calculations or reasoning. Thus, for those questions I almost had to make a complete guess for the answer. Others though, I did make an educated guess. RPedigo, on average how long did you spend on a particular question before deciding to move on and making an educated guess?

Typically, timing has not been an issue for me, so I never really set myself a time limit. I find that structuring strict time limits per question might increase anxiety, since "I need to get the answer to this question in the next fifteen seconds". Doing this will cloud your thinking, and put you under undue stress. Likewise, you can't dwell on one question for too long, but you should have a general idea if you'll figure out the answer or not.

If you had no idea how to approach a question, then you likely aren't as well prepared in the sciences as you should be, and that's something that you can work on. I don't believe anyone should ever be making a completely random guess on a question unless they run out of time; if they do, that's a sign that they're not well-prepared for the test, by virtue of lacking a certain science section knowledge. This is not necessarily a fatal thing though; a few guesses per section won't kill your score, but it is something that can be prevented with adequate preparation.

For physical sciences, I finished 25 minutes early and went back to double-check my first few passages (good thing I did, too). For biological sciences, I finished 15 minutes early, but just ended my test 15 minutes early-- I didn't double check my answers, since I felt confident about my responses. For verbal reasoning, the passages were longer than expected, and I guessed on four questions. That was my bad for losing pace though, so I wouldn't place the blame on the passages, but rather myself.

Good luck