Tammyla Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 Ds wants opinions and his best options for the following standardized test situation. (He's taking the ITBS.) The test proctor gives a time warning, or you notice yourself that time is running out and you have a number of questions to go... Should you quickly fill in the bubbles in a random order or hurry up and answer as many as you can leaving the rest blank? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt_Uhura Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 It depends. If it were the SAT and you want the highest score possible, fill in the rest as quickly as possible. On an achievement test where you want to see what he knows, have him do as much as he can and leave the rest blank. If he gets a higher score from randomly guessing, does that tell you anything? NOt that I learn much about what my DC knows anyone from those tests but that's how I reasoned it out anyhow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tammyla Posted April 7, 2011 Author Share Posted April 7, 2011 (edited) :iagree: I totally agree with your reasoning. He however, is discussing testing with friends who are full of advice based on their experiences. It depends. If it were the SAT and you want the highest score possible, fill in the rest as quickly as possible. On an achievement test where you want to see what he knows, have him do as much as he can and leave the rest blank. If he gets a higher score from randomly guessing, does that tell you anything? NOt that I learn much about what my DC knows anyone from those tests but that's how I reasoned it out anyhow. Thank you for answering. I guess statistically, he couldn't miss more randomly filling in the bubbles vs. leaving them blank. Logically this does trouble me, and I'm betting we will be having further discussions regarding the statistical probabilities. Another reason, I wish my state didn't require testing/reporting. Edited April 7, 2011 by Tammyla Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kuovonne Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 It depends. If it were the SAT and you want the highest score possible, fill in the rest as quickly as possible. I thought incorrect answers count against you on the SAT? If so, filling in random answers would be a waste of time. Even for an achievement test, I think that you are better off hurrying to answer as many as you can, leaving the rest blank. If you can eliminate some of the possible choices, you could guess from the remaining choices for that question. But that's different from random guessing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capt_Uhura Posted April 7, 2011 Share Posted April 7, 2011 HHmm now that you mention it, I do recall something like. Was it a fourth of a point off for wrong answers? I don't think that was the case for the ACT though. YEs, ideally you should eliminate obvious wrong answers and then quickly guess between the remaining. We're going w/ the SAT/10 this year which is untimed. We did the NWEA MAP last year which is also untimed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tammyla Posted April 7, 2011 Author Share Posted April 7, 2011 Looks like I should have chosen an untimed test. Anyone know if the ITBS deducts for wrong answers? I'm in the camp of not randomly filling in bubbles, but many here locally are advised to try and fill them all in leaving no empty bubbles.:confused: I'm pretty conflicted as a parent trying to advise him. Thank you both for helping me think this through. Any more thoughts? HHmm now that you mention it, I do recall something like. Was it a fourth of a point off for wrong answers? I don't think that was the case for the ACT though. YEs, ideally you should eliminate obvious wrong answers and then quickly guess between the remaining. We're going w/ the SAT/10 this year which is untimed. We did the NWEA MAP last year which is also untimed. I thought incorrect answers count against you on the SAT? If so, filling in random answers would be a waste of time. Even for an achievement test, I think that you are better off hurrying to answer as many as you can, leaving the rest blank. If you can eliminate some of the possible choices, you could guess from the remaining choices for that question. But that's different from random guessing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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