Elimination Strategies

This strategy is used when the exact answer is not known for certain, but you have some knowledge of the information being tested.  Such partial information is used by good test takers, not necessarily to obtain a correct answer, but to eliminate less likely choices, decreasing purely random answering.

Guessing Strategies

Guess whenever you feel unsure of an answer.  When time permits, read the stem and answer choices and think about the choices before answering.  Guessing in an area you have recently studied will result in much higher scores than you may have imagined.

Using Time Wisely

The rate at which test items should be answered is a critical consideration.  When time is very short, and there are many unanswered items,  make a point to answer as many as possible, as fast as possible.  If youdon’t answer, you will have no chance of earning points, but if youguess, at least some may be right. 

Read as Much of the Passage as Possible

Read the passage through, regardless of whether you can read all the words.  Many students are used to reading under teacher supervision using controlled materials.  They may not be well prepared for reading through passages that contain words they cannot read, and receiving no teacher’s feedback.

Read each question and all answer choices

Students often impulsively choose an option that exhibits some superficial familiarity, without considering answer choices.  Sometimes, they don’t even read the question! 

Refer back to the passage to be sure your answer is correct

It is all right to refer back to the passage to help find clues to the answer.

Scanning text

Briefly scan information to determine what it is and how it is organized, and then proceed directly to the questions.