Test-Taking Strategy
The skills that raise a score independently of how much content you know.
By the end of this lesson you can
- Manage time so you never leave answerable questions unattempted
- Use elimination effectively on multiple choice
- Approach a passage-and-question set in the right order
- Handle test anxiety with methods that actually work
Lesson Notes
Read through the key concepts before you try the challenge.
Points you lose that had nothing to do with knowing the answer
You are twenty minutes from the end of the math test.
You have spent eleven minutes on one problem you almost had. There are nine questions left, several of which you could answer in under a minute. You run out of time with six unattempted, and four of them were easy.
Your task: Learn the strategy that protects the points you already know how to earn.
| Do this | Because |
|---|---|
| Answer every question, even a guess | There is no penalty for a wrong answer. A blank is a guaranteed zero |
| Do two passes — easy questions first | Banks certain points before spending time on hard ones |
| Set a per-question time limit and honor it | One eleven-minute problem can cost you six answerable ones |
| Mark and return rather than persisting | Later questions sometimes remind you how to do an earlier one |
| Eliminate wrong answers before choosing | Cutting two of four turns a 25% guess into 50% |
| Read the question before the passage | You read the passage knowing what you are looking for |
| Watch for NOT, EXCEPT, LEAST | Missing a negative turns a correct understanding into a wrong answer |
Working a passage-and-question set
A science passage with a graph, followed by four questions.
- 1
Read the questions first, not the passage.
Thirty seconds of reading the questions tells you what to look for. You then read the passage actively, hunting specific things, instead of reading it once for general understanding and again for each question.
- 2
Read the graph's axes and units before its shape.
Most graph questions turn on what is being measured rather than on the trend. A shape read without units is easy to misinterpret, and test writers know that.
- 3
Answer the questions you can find directly, then the ones that need reasoning.
Direct-retrieval questions are quick points. Doing them first means the harder inference questions are attempted with the passage already fresh.
- 4
For every answer, point to the line or the data that supports it.
If you cannot point to it, you are choosing what sounds plausible. On these tests the most plausible-sounding wrong answer is deliberately included.
Result: Every question attempted, with the easy points banked and each answer traceable to the source.
Questions first, axes before shape, retrieval before inference, and never choose what you cannot point to.
Five minutes remain and you have six questions left. What should you do?
Challenge
Apply what you've learned in this lesson.
Practice under real conditions — untimed practice does not prepare you for a timed test.
- Take one full-length timed practice section. Note where you ran out of time and which questions you left blank.
- Calculate your per-question time budget: total minutes divided by number of questions. Write it on your hand during the next practice.
- Take ten practice questions and, for each, write down which answers you eliminated and why before choosing.
- Do one passage set reading the questions first, and one reading the passage first. Time both and compare.
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