Tactics Scribble Away The first thing you should know is that it's okay to mark up your test booklet. You're free to draw or write anything you want on it. No one cares what you write on your test booklet or how messy it looks. All that matters is what you enter on your answer sheet. We encourage you to go a bit wild when it comes to making notations during the exam. If you think it will help, write it down. For the math section this includes creating tables, working on algebra formulas, marking up diagrams, adding lines and so on. If you get stuck on a problem, then put a big circle around it so that if you have time at the end of the exam, you can spot it quickly and work on it. In the verbal section, it's smart to underline or circle key words, make notes in the margins, and put question marks near answers you're unsure about. Whatever works for you is fine. Unintentional Pencil Marks When it comes to your answer sheet, be careful not make any unintentional pencil marks. Most answer sheets are graded by a computer, and a computer cannot tell if you intended to answer a question or if your pencil just happen to graze the paper. Make certain to erase any stray pencil marks that might appear on the sheet, or they may be counted as your answers. Tracking Time It's a good idea to keep track of your time. To do well on the exam, you need to pace yourself. It helps to bring your own watch. Don't rely on the clock on the wall. It's distracting to look up and can lead to mistakes. It's also more difficult to read the time from a clock on the wall. The best solution is to bring a digital stopwatch. This makes keeping track of your time a breeze. At a glance, you'll know exactly how many minutes you have left. You can buy a digital stopwatch for under $10.00, so don't be pennywise and pound foolish. Get the watch and practice using it. Answer the Easy Questions Answer the easy questions first. This will help you warm up and make it easier to deal with the harder questions later on. On most standardized exams, the easy questions tend to come at the beginning of each section. This means that you should just answer the questions in the order that they appear, except if you get stuck on a question and feel it's better to come back to it at a later time. Gauge the Questions If you want to maximize your score, it's important to gauge the difficulty of each question and adjust your strategy accordingly. If it's an easy question, go with your gut. Your first hunch is probably right when it comes to the simpler questions. However, as the questions become more difficult, you'll want to spend more time on each one and think through all the possibilities. Many times the exams will try to trick you with eye-catchers or secondary meanings, so a good strategy is to take more time as the questions become more difficult. Analyze Every Answer When it comes to verbal questions, you should analyze every possible answer before moving on to the next question. This is because many verbal questions ask you to pick the "best" choice, which means that more than one choice may work, but one is better than the others. If you simply plug in the first answer that seems to work, you may be missing out on the correct solution. With the math questions, this isn't an issue and you don't need to plug in every possible answer. Math isn't subjective. It's either right or wrong, so if you come up with the right answer, you don't need to waste your time plugging in the other answers to see if they're better. Answer What is Asked This sounds like common sense, but you should make certain to answer the question that is being asked. Often questions can be confusing, and in your haste, it's easy to answer the wrong question. For instance, in a math question, they may give you an equation, like x + 7 = 1000, but instead of asking for the value of x, they ask for the value of x / 10. In this case, if you're in a rush, you may simply see the value of x listed as one of the possible answers and choose it. Whenever you see a question like this, make a habit of circling what they want for the answer. This will help remind you what to do. The same holds true whenever you're asked to read a passage of text and questions pop up like "The author means all of the following except" or "What's the least likely outcome?" In either of these cases, it's easy to get confused and answer something different than what was asked. What You Know Doesn't Count Sometimes you know a lot about a subject, but you should be careful about basing your answers exclusively on this knowledge, especially when it comes to reading passages of text. You may have facts in your head that contradict what is written in the exam. In this case, it's a big mistake to start answering the questions without first carefully reading the passage, and when you do answer the questions, make sure your answer agrees with what is written in the test booklet. Whatever you've heard or read in the past doesn't count. The same holds true for any data interpretation questions. If they're asking a question about the climate in Los Angeles, don't base your answers on your personal experience. You may well know the temperature ranges from first-hand experience, but your knowledge might not be the same as what is listed in the chart on the exam. Always base your answers solely on the information provided within the test, even if you know it's wrong. Don't Go Wild Some students panic at the end of a multiple choice exam when they look over their answers and see too many A's or B's. They rush back and try to change their answers to make the spread more even. This is always a mistake. More often than not, you'll wind up lowering your test score. Other times, students who finish early go back and start changing answers on a whim. They just feel the other answers might be better. Unless you're sure that what you put down originally is incorrect, do not change the answer. And if you do happen to change an answer, make certain to erase the incorrect answer completely from your answer sheet. Don't Read the Directions When you sit down to actually take the test, do NOT read the directions on how to take the test and answer the questions. It's a waste of time. By the time you're ready to take the actual exam, you should have memorized the directions for every section of the test. You can accomplish this by studying practice exams well in advance of taking the test. On the same note, when you sit down to take the actual exam, don't glance over the practice questions in each section. That's another big waste of time. By the time you take the exam, you should already be familiar with the type of questions you'll get in each section, and there should be no need to look at the practice questions during the exam. Go straight to the questions that you have to answer and focus all of your energy and time on them. Calculators Calculators are a great tool, and they can help you on an exam, but don't overuse them. Remember, nearly all questions on standardized exams do not require drawn-out or cumbersome calculations. If you find yourself plugging away at your calculator for a long time on a single question, then you're probably doing something wrong. Also, sometimes it's faster to do simple math calculations in your head rather than relying on your calculator. Pressing the buttons takes time, and you're just as likely to make an error hitting a wrong button as you are computing something yourself. In fact, it's smart to double check your calculator answers by doing a similar calculation in your head. Even if you're only approximating the answer with a mental calculation, you'll get a sense for whether or not you're in the ballpark. Some students just put down whatever their calculator spits out without a second thought as to whether it's within logical range. This is a big mistake. Always take a second to reflect on whether your answer seems reasonable or not. Calculate By Steps Another problem with using calculators for the more complex computations is that they don't leave a trail. When you type something in and press the buttons, the numbers keep changing and you have no way of going back and checking where you might have made a mistake. To solve this deficiency, we recommend that you jot down some key numbers as you go, so you can check back and see if something doesn't make sense. We call this calculating by steps. At every logical juncture, write down the key numbers in the equation and then continue on. Pacing It's good to pace yourself. That's why doing practice exams before actually sitting down to take the actual exam is essential. You need to gain a feel for how long you need to spend on each question, and you can only do this by repeatedly taking practice exams. Once you gain a good sense for your optimal pace, then time yourself and make note of roughly how long you should be spending on each question. But keep in mind, when it comes to actually taking the exam, don't rush yourself through the questions just to keep pace. Some questions naturally take longer than others, and you'll need to stay flexible. This said, if you get stuck on one particular question, you should know when it's time to move on. That's one of the keys to smart test taking. Once you gain this type of experience, you'll have a gut feeling for when to give yourself more time and when to call it quits and move on to the next question. Scoring Well Remember, it's possible to score well and omit or guess at some questions. For example, on most standardized exams, you only have to answer half of all the questions correctly to be in the top half of all the students taking the test. So don't freak out when it comes to running out of time. It's not how many questions you answer but how many questions you get right that counts. Guessing is Good If you don't know the answer, don't be afraid to guess. Our motto is, "Leave no question unanswered!" Even a wild guess is better than leaving the question blank. Educated Guesses If you have no clue as to the answer, there are still ways you can increase your odds. First, see if you can eliminate any of the answers. If you look carefully at the question, you'll almost always be able to eliminate at least one answer that is blatantly wrong. In the math section, make a rough guess in your mind and if any of the answers seem way off base, such as being negative when you know the answer is positive, you can discount them. In the verbal section, the same is true. Some of the answers won't make any sense and can be eliminated quickly. Once you narrow down the field, go with your gut. When guessing, it's okay to trust your instincts, just beware of common traps like eye-catchers. Filling Out Answer Sheets A good strategy is to fill out your answer sheet in blocks. This saves valuable time by keeping you from switching back and forth between the test and the answer sheet. It also helps you from getting distracted and losing your train of thought, especially when reading passages. We recommend that you take your pencil and circle the correct answers on your test, then when you come to a natural break, like the end of a page, go to your answer sheet and fill in the ovals. The only time you wouldn't want to do this is when you're coming to the end of a section and time is running out. In this case, you should answer the questions as you go, so that you don't leave any questions unanswered if you happen to run out of time.