Pacing
Most people believe that to do well on a test, it is important to answer every question. While this is true of most of the tests you take in school, it is not true of many standardized tests, including the SSAT and ISEE. On these tests, it is very possible to score well without attempting all of the questions; in fact, many students can improve their scores by answering fewer questions.
“Wait a second. I can get a better score by attempting fewer questions?” Yes. On the Middle and Upper Level SSAT you are penalized only for the questions you answer incorrectly, not for the questions you skip. Because all of the questions are worth the same amount of points, it’s just as good to answer a question you understand than waste time with one you don’t. So for the most part, you’ll give your attention to problems you think you can answer, and decide which questions are too thorny to waste time on. This test- taking approach is just as important to score improvement as your knowledge of vocabulary and math rules!
On the ISEE, it is best to answer all questions because there is no guessing penalty.
In general, all math and verbal questions on the SSAT and ISEE gradually increase in difficulty from first to last. (The one exception is the Reading section, where question difficulty is mixed.) This means that for most students, the longest and most complicated problems are at the end of each section. For this reason, all students should focus the majority of their attention on the questions they know they can answer. Why rush through these and make careless errors, when you
could spend time and get all of them right? Attempt the ones you find more challenging last—if you have time.
The reason that this approach to pacing can actually increase scores on the Middle and Upper Level SSAT is that skipped questions gain you zero points, whereas each incorrect answer reduces your raw score by a quarter-point. Because your raw score will decrease only if you answer a question incorrectly, skipping is the best strategy for a problem that has you completely stumped. Ideally, you will either get a question right or skip it (with some exceptions when you can guess intelligently and aggressively).
Skipping will be a major tool mostly for the questions you find most troublesome. Guessing will be part of the whole test, so let’s look at how guessing and skipping work together. Again, ISEE and Elementary SSAT students should select an answer for every question.
Points are not deducted for wrong answers on the SSAT Elementary Level test. Thus, do not leave any answers blank. Even so, pace yourself wisely to increase your accuracy on questions you know or think you know the answers to. This is also true for all levels of the ISEE.
Guessing on the Middle and Upper Level SSAT
When should you guess? Whenever you can eliminate even one wrong answer with certainty. Yes, really. We’ll get to why in a minute.
Eliminate the wrong answers and you’ll have the right answer by Process of Elimination (we’ll explain more about this later). So eliminate the answers that are clearly wrong and guess! Be aggressive.
Over the course of the whole test, this strategy will increase your score.
How? Well, let’s look again at how SSAT questions are scored, right answers are rewarded, and wrong answers are penalized.
Correct answers: +1 point
Wrong answers: – point Blank answers: 0 points
Suppose we asked you to place a bet on five attempts to draw a yellow marble from a bag. The bag contains four black marbles and one yellow marble, and you have to put the drawn marble back after each attempt. There’s only one chance in five that you’ll draw the yellow marble, but if you do, you get a dollar. There’s a four in five chance of a black marble; when you draw black, you pay us 25¢. Would you do it?
Maybe yes, maybe no. If you drew yellow once and black four times, you’d get a dollar and then pay 25¢ four times, ending up with nothing. You wouldn’t lose money, but you wouldn’t win any, either.
Similarly, there are five choices on every SSAT question, but only one right answer. So if you just guess randomly without eliminating anything first, you will be right about one time and wrong about four times for every five questions you do. That means that the one time you were right, you would get one full raw point (yay!), but you would lose a quarter-point four times (boo!). All of this would bring you right back to where you started.
1 – 4( ) = 0
So random guessing will pretty much keep your score flat. Here is where our guessing strategy comes in. What if, instead of a one-in-five chance of drawing yellow, the odds were one in four? This time, if four attempts usually resulted in drawing one yellow ($1 for you) and three blacks (pay out 75¢), you’d make a little money and come out on top.
On an SSAT question, if you can eliminate one choice out of the five, you’re in the same situation. You now have only four possible answers, and you will be right about once for every three times you are wrong.
Now the penalty for wrong answers will have less impact. If you narrow it down to three choices, you’ll get about one right for every two times you’re wrong. Good odds? You bet. That’s like making a dollar and losing 50¢. If you can do this throughout the test, you will
gradually increase your score. That’s why it pays to spend time eliminating the wrong answers and then guessing aggressively.
1 – 3( ) =
Want to use what you’ve just learned to improve your score? You’ve come to the right place. Guessing well is one of the most important skills this book can teach you. Strategic guessing and skipping, as simple as they seem, are very powerful score-boosters on standardized tests like the SSAT. Now, let’s discuss one more major test-taking approach that should be a part of your game plan.
Process of Elimination
Here’s a question you will not see on the SSAT or ISEE, but which will show you how powerful Process of Elimination (POE) can be.
What is the capital of Malawi?
(A) New York (B) Paris (C) London (D) Lilongwe
(E) Washington, D.C.
There are two ways to get this question right. First, you can know that the capital of Malawi is Lilongwe. If you do, good for you! The second is to know that the capital of Malawi is not New York, Paris, London, or Washington, D.C. You don’t get more points for knowing the right answer from the start, so one way is just as good as the other. Try to get into the habit of looking at a question and asking, “What are the wrong answers?” instead of “What is the right answer?”
Should I Guess?
Random guessing will not improve your Upper or Middle Level SSAT score. Educated guessing,
however, is always a good idea.
By using POE this way, you will eliminate wrong answers and have fewer answers from which to choose. The result is that you will pick right answers more often. In the example above, you’re not even really guessing. You know that the other four answers are wrong (or three answers, if you’re taking the ISEE), and that’s as good as knowing the right answer. In fact, now you do know the capital of Malawi. That’s the great thing about guessing on a standardized test like the SSAT or ISEE—when you have trouble finding the correct answer, you can often eliminate the wrong ones and come out on top. Now let’s practice the same technique in another problem.
Which of the following cities is the capital of Samoa?
(A) Vila (B) Boston (C) Apia (D) Chicago (E) Los Angeles
You may not know the right answer off the top of your head, but which cities are not the capital of Samoa? You probably know enough about the locations of (B), (D), and (E) to know that Boston, Chicago, and Los Angeles are not the capital of Samoa.
So, what’s a good answer to this question? (A) or (C).
What’s the right answer? That is not the right question here. The better question is this: should I guess? And the answer is absolutely yes. Yes, yes, yes. You’ve done a great job of narrowing the answer down to just two choices. On any question where you’ve done this,
you’ll have a fifty-fifty chance. In other words, on average you’ll get these questions right about half the time (+1 point) and wrong the other half (– point). Even though you’ll get some (about half) of these wrong, your score will go up overall, by about 1 point for every 3 questions, and that can make all the difference. Always use POE and guess aggressively. Remember that on the SSAT you should skip the question if you can’t eliminate anything at all.