Heather in Savannah Posted October 12, 2008 Share Posted October 12, 2008 My dd is taking the psat on Wednesday. I need a refresher....is it wise to guess on the psat if the student is not sure of the answer, or does that count as -2 points? Any other suggestions? Thanks again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaryM Posted October 12, 2008 Share Posted October 12, 2008 It's just like the SAT. If you can eliminate one or two answers then guess. They take a quarter of a point off for each wrong answer so it is statistically to your advantage to guess if you can eliminate some answers. My kid will never leave a question unanswered even when I stress he should skip it if he doesn't know anything about it! Good luck. Mary Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michelle in MO Posted October 13, 2008 Share Posted October 13, 2008 to eliminate, through process-of-elimination, as many wrong answers as you can. Then, your student should pick the best possible answer. If they're wrong, it deducts 1/4 of a point from their score for that section. If they leave it blank, it deducts a complete point from their score. For example, on the first Critical Reading test, there are 24 possible points. Your student answers all of them, and gets 22 correct. To figure out their raw score for that section, you do this formula: (A) Number correct: 22 (B) Number omitted: 0 © Number incorrect: 2 (D) 1/4 X ©: 1/2 (A) - (D): 21.5 So, it's to your student's advantage to answer every question as well as he/she can. My daughter's working on a practice test this week, as she also faces this on Wednesday! Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heather in Savannah Posted October 13, 2008 Author Share Posted October 13, 2008 and more. Much appreciated. Heather Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kendall Posted October 14, 2008 Share Posted October 14, 2008 I think you don't lose a point for leaving it blank. In the scenario above 22 correct, 2 skipped, the score would be 22. But they do round up, so at the end a .5 rounds up so having guessed the 2 would result in a 22 as well. So I agree to guess in most cases, but not to bubble in random answers if they don't have time to read the questions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quiver0f10 Posted October 14, 2008 Share Posted October 14, 2008 I think you don't lose a point for leaving it blank. This is my understanding too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
readwithem Posted October 14, 2008 Share Posted October 14, 2008 For each correct answer, you receive one point. For questions you omit, you receive no points. For a wrong answer to a multiple-choice question, you lose a fraction of a point. For a wrong answer to a math question that is not multiple choice, you do not lose any points. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halftime Hope Posted October 15, 2008 Share Posted October 15, 2008 If you aren't pretty sure of your narrowed down guess, you might be better to simply leave it blank. If you leave it blank, you are essentially penalized one point (you didn't get that point), but if you guess incorrectly, you not only don't get the point, you also get .25 deducted, so a wrong answer would set you back 1.25 points. The questions are usually harder toward the end of the section, so, generally, it would be riskier to guess on those harder questions, unless you were pretty sure of your narrowed down choice. hth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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