Strategy One
DO NOT guess at questions you do not know.

Because of the way the College Board SAT is scored it is beneficial to simply leave questions you do not know unanswered.

When the SAT is scored, students will receive 1 point for correct answers and -1/4 point for incorrect answers. However, there is no penalty for not answering a question.

Example: If there are 10 questions to be answered and I answer 6 correct and 4 incorrect then I will receive 6 points for my correct answers and will lose 1 point (4 times 0.25) for my incorrect answers leaving me with a total of only 5 points. This may not seem like much when only considering 10 questions but if the same were to hold true for the close to seventy questions on that represent each section of the College Board SAT then I would have lost a total of 7 points which would potentially reduce my overall section score by 70 points. There is a big difference between getting a 430 in a section versus a 500.

If we extrapolate this across all three sections (Reading Comprehension/Math/Writing Skills). there is a potential loss of 210 points (70 times 3) in the overall score.

This strategy for increasing your score may seem counter-intuitive to the first strategy but it is not. It is a matter of mathematics.

Before I go into the mathematics that supports this strategy, it must be very clearly understood that the test taker MUST be able to positively eliminate 2 or 3 choices. So that you are sure that 1 of the remaining 2 or 3 answers must be correct.

Here is how this works: If I guess on a regular question that has five possible answers, then I will guess correctly one in five times (or 20 percent of the time.) We know that if you guess wrong you will lose a quarter of a point (0.25). So if I guess correctly one time I gain 1 point. If I guess then incorrectly four times I lose 1 point (4 times 0.25). There is then no gain in my score.

Surprisingly, however, most students that simply guess, guess at a rate less than 20% which will give them a net loss of points.

Now, if I can eliminate the answers to two possible choices, then I have a 50% chance of getting it correct. Therefore, if I have 4 questions and guess two correct and two incorrect then I have net gain of 2 points. (2 points for the correct answers and a deduction of -0.5 for the incorrect.) This would seem to indicate a result of 1.5, but because the College Board SAT rounds scores up, you end up with 2.0.

This strategy is simple. If you finish early and just sit there, then you have lost that time in potential points.

Consider this: If you had 2 or 3 particularly difficult math questions, but just decided to leave those unanswered then you will never be able to get any points from those questions.

However, if you spend your extra 5 minutes trying to eliminate possible choices and then are able to guess at two or three possible remaining choices for each question, then you will result in an increased score, based on the second strategy of guessing.

Remeber: difficult questions will require more time to figure out. So don't think yourself unable to figure it out if it takes you a long time. The question may be set up to take a while to figure out.

This is another very easy strategy.

The College Board SAT coordinates its questions so that a few Easy questions come fist followed by Medium questions then Hard questions.

If you find that you are having difficulty answering some questions, skip to the next section and do those easy questions. After you have answered all the Easy and Medium questions, then turn your attention to the Hard questions.