STUDY SMART TUTORS
performance. Depending on how well you did, you’ll then be routed to either a more challenging Module 2 or an easier Module 2.
A common question students ask is about the threshold for reaching the “harder” module. Essentially, they want to know: How many questions do I need to get right to be routed to the hard module? At Study Smart Tutors, we believe this question misses the point. First of all, each SAT is different, so there is no fixed number that guarantees access to the hard module. While our analyses offer a reasonable estimate of what that threshold might be, we’re not going to tell you. Why? Even if you knew the number, so what? Let’s say the threshold is 11 126 . Would you focus only on getting 11 questions right? That’s not a smart strategy, and we are Study Smart Tutors, and you are a Study Smart Student. Just try your best on every question.
GUESSING
You’ve probably heard this advice before: If you don’t know the answer to a question on the SAT, always guess—never leave anything blank. This is true because there is no “guessing penalty” on the SAT, but it is not entirely accurate either. Before explaining why, let’s distinguish between two types of guessing: • Blind guessing: When a student chooses an answer at random. • Informed guessing: When a student chooses the answer most likely to be correct based on the available information and some level of reasoning. On the SAT, you will want to employ informed guessing. But whether you employ blind guessing or informed guessing, some educators just dislike multiple-choice tests because there’s always a chance that a student can answer a question correctly by just blindly guessing! In fact, some teachers refer to multiple-choice tests as multiple-guess tests. For example,
What molecule exhibits a Jahn-Teller distortion in its ground state geometry?
If you’re reading this book, you’re probably not a chemist or Jahn or Teller, which means you have no chance of answering this question correctly: 0%.
Which of the following molecules exhibits a Jahn-Teller distortion in its ground state geometry?
A) SF 6 B) BArF 4 - C) H 2 O D) CuC 12
But for the question with answer choices, you at least have a chance of answering this question correctly: 25%.
126 It is not 11.
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