Guessing Strategies for the GED
TAKE THE GUESSING OUT OF GUESSING
To compensate for the multiple-choice advantage for the test taker, the GED test writers include answers that are designed at first glance to give the appearance of being correct. Following are some strategies that you can use to see through these seemingly “correct” answers and outwit the test writers.
The most common reason you will miss correct answers on the GED is that you misread either the question itself or text that goes along with the problem, or you simply did not follow directions. So, your first strategy is to read every question and answer very carefully. Give each question and answer your full attention and focus. Read every word and make sure you understand exactly what they say.
You will encounter three possibilities when you do multiple-choice questions.
1. The first possibility is that you know the correct answer. You read the problem and you can easily pick out the correct answer.
2. The second possibility is that you definitely do not know the answer. You don’t have a clue.
3. The third, and most common possibility is that you are unsure of the answer. You have some idea, but are not positive one way or the other. These answers can hurt your score the most because you will tend to choose the answer that your hunch tells you is correct.
The biggest challenge you face in answering multiple-choice questions is deciding if an answer is a number two, where you have no clue, or a number three, where you are unsure but have a hunch. Hunches can defeat you. The reason hunches are so problematic is that the test writers have written answers that “look correct” but are not. These answers appeal to the hunch takers because they are in the gray area of sounding “kind of” correct.
GUESSING STRATEGY #1: KILL THE HUNCH
Here’s an easy way to test the correctness of your hunches. Ask yourself if you would bet $100 on your hunch. One Hundred dollars is a lot of money to most people. You will probably not put a $100 on an answer that is just a hunch, that you are not pretty sure of.
The $100 betting strategy will help you decide if an answer is just a hunch, a guess, or actually based on some knowledge you have about the topic. Your goal is to eliminate the hunches and put the answer into the pure guess category, #2 or the #1 category where you base your choice on actual knowledge and experience.
When you discover that your hunch is just really just a guess, then you put the answer into the second group, the questions you do not know the answer to. Now you can take a guess without the influence of the hunch and your chances of getting a correct answer are much better. The hunch answer was most likely wrong because the test writers put it in the test to mislead you, or at least to get you to think more clearly. By eliminating the foggy hunch answer, you have increased your chance considerably because now you use the law of averages to guess.
Since you do not have a clue which of these answers are correct you will want to make a purely random choice. Make a rule that you will follow whenever you encounter a pure guess choice, like taking the last of the choices, and follow that rule in every single case. By the law of averages you will get 30% to 50% of these answers correct. When you follow this strategy you will have improved your guessing average by as much as 60%. This translates to an additional ten to fifteen percent correct answers.
GUESSING STRATEGY #2: WATCH OUT FOR SLANG
Answers that use slang are generally incorrect. But use a little caution with this rule because the inverse is not always true. Answers that are the most scientific and formal sounding often are correct, but not always. The test takers sometimes write answers that have a formal or scientific feel t o them that are incorrect.
This strategy of eliminating slang answers is used to eliminate wrong answers, not necessarily to pick correct ones. Generally, answers that use slang words will be wrong more often than not.
GUESSING STRATEGY #3: EXTREME OR ABSOLUTES
Watch for words like always, never, none or all, best, worst, solely. Correct answers rarely are absolutes or extremes. Answers with these words are usually incorrect. Eliminate them from your choices just on principle, even though they may seem correct.
Choose answers that use qualifiers like: sometimes, may, can, likely, often, or will often. In a guessing situation these choices will be more often be correct than not. They will give you an edge when you do not have a clue.
GUESSING STRATEGY #4: OPPOSITES
If there are two answers that are opposites of each other, one is likely to be correct. This is just common sense in test writing. It takes a lot of time to think up opposites, therefore the test writer is generally not going to take the time to write opposites for two answers that are not true. Opposites are usually included to confuse the test taker. Watch for them. When you find them then you know with some certainty that one of the answers is correct. You are now down to a 50/50 choice. The best strategy at this point is to use your rule of thumb, take the last choice and move on to the next question. If you can put the questions in the #1 category, the ones you have some knowledge of, then make an informed guess, but be sure to apply your $100 bet.
Try out your guessing strategy on the practice test questions. You’ll see that they can improve you score substantially.
