Sat math Essentials

G u e s s i n g o n F i v e - C h o i c e
Q u e s t i o n s : T h e S h o r t Ve r s i o n
Okay, who cares about all the reasons you should guess,
right? You just want to know when to do it. It’s simple:
■
If you can eliminate even just one answer choice,
you should always guess.
■
If you can’t eliminate any answer choices, don’t
guess.
–
T E C H N I Q U E S A N D S T R AT E G I E S
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3 1

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G u e s s i n g o n G r i d - I n Q u e s t i o n s
The chances of guessing correctly on a grid-in question
are so slim that it’s usually not worth taking the time to
fill in the ovals if you are just guessing blindly. However,
you don’t lose any points if you answer a grid-in ques-
tion incorrectly, so if you have some kind of attempt at
an answer, fill it in! 
To summarize:
■
If you’ve figured out a solution to the problem—
even if you think it might be incorrect—fill in the
answer.
■
If you don’t have a clue about how to answer the
question, don’t bother guessing.
O t h e r I m p o r t a n t S t r a t e g i e s
Read the Questions Carefully and
Know What the Question Is
Asking You to Do
Many students read questions too quickly and don’t
understand what exactly they should answer before
examining the answer choices. Questions are often
written to trick students into choosing an incorrect
answer choice based on misunderstanding the ques-
tion. So always read questions carefully. When you fin-
ish reading the question, make a note of what you
should look for in the answer choices. For example, it
might be, “I need to determine the 
y
-intercept of the
line when its slope is 4” or “I need to determine the area
of the unshaded region in the figure.”