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1e. More Strategies for the CAT
The Art of Guessing
Guessing, like pacing, is more important
on the CAT than on any other test you have ever taken. You'll
have to guess often on the CAT because
- You can't skip questions. If
you have a mental block, you have to guess at the question in
front of you. You can't pass over a question and go back to it
later. Since all answers are final, you have to make sure your
guess is a good one. Most students waste more than 1/3 of their
time bogged down on a handful of tough questions. You have to
learn how to guess, move on, and cut your losses after spending
more than a few minutes on a question.
- At the end of the test, when
time is about to expire, you have to hurry to make sure to get
to every question or else face the severe penalty for not finishing
all the test's questions. Many students have to do this last
minute sprint and are often left guessing on the last few questions.
P.O.E
The key guessing strategy is POE (process
of elimination). A big asset going into test day is knowing that
one of the five possible answers must be right. If you
can eliminate two of the choices, you can increase your chances
of getting the right answer by 65% (from 20%--1 in 5 to 33%--1
in 3). Here's how to do it...
- Eliminate answer choices you
know are wrong. Even if you don't know the right answer, you
can often tell that some of the answer choices are wrong. For
example, on the Data Sufficiency questions you can eliminate
at least two of the answer choices by determining if one of the
statements is true. On Sentence Correction questions you can
eliminate any answers in which you find an error.
- Avoid answer choices that look
suspicious. For example, on Sentence Correction questions, beware
of any answer choices that look completely different from all
of the other choices. In the Quantitative section, you
can usually eliminate any answers that are negative when all
the other answers are positive.
- Once you have narrowed down
the list of answer choices, pick one of the remainders. (It is
a myth that some answer choices, like A or C, are more often
correct than other choices.)
Draw a Grid
If crossing off answer choices
on paper tests helps to clarify your thinking (using the POE),
you might want to consider making a grid on your scratch paper.
By drawing a simple grid and labeling the rows A through E, you
can keep track of which answers you have eliminated by putting
an X in that box.
The Importance of
Scratch Paper
Another big asset you have going
into test day is virtually unlimited scratch paper. Use it and
make sure you have lots of it on test day (Note: calculators
are not allowed).
You'll need scratch paper because you
are taking a test off of a computer screen, and you can't
write on the screen. The result is that you'll often have
to carefully copy much of the question down onto paper without
mis-copying the information. This can be awkward and difficult.
It takes valuable time to copy information, and it increases
the chance of a hurried error, so you have to be careful about
what you copy and what you don't copy. Try to use scratch paper
extensively on your practice tests to get a feel for this.
Experiments on
CATs
About
1/3 of the questions on the CAT are experimental and will be
randomly mixed in with your normal questions. In these questions
you are being used as a guinea pig to assess the difficulty of
the question. In the future, that question will be positioned
at a difficulty level depending on how students performed on
it when it was an experimental question.
The consequence of the experimental
questions is that you can't rely on all the questions being at
your difficulty level. In other words, if you are a high scorer,
you can't expect all the questions past question five to be difficult
(at your level). Try to avoid obsessing over how difficult or
easy your questions are.
Don't Panic
If you have a bad day, you have
the option of canceling. When you finish the test, the computer
will offer the option of canceling the test or accepting it.
If you cancel the test, neither you nor any school will see your
score. If you accept the test, the computer will display your
score, and it will be available to all schools. Relax and make
sure to schedule the test far in advance of when it is due. Make
sure you have adequate time to cancel and reschedule the test
if necessary.
Experiment with the strategies
suggested to see what works best for you. Now that you know the
CAT basics, you can progress to the specific subject areas....
>>> Continue to chapter 2: Reading Comprehension >>
>>> Continue to Table of Contents: >>
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