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MULTIPLE-CHOICE TEST-TAKING TIPS
Work as quickly as possible without sacrificing accuracy. Since your score ultimately depends on the
number of questions you answer correctly, you will want to answer as many questions as possible within
the time limit. On the other hand, since a fraction of a point is subtracted for each wrong answer, you can’t
afford to be careless. The practice tests in this book will help you find the right balance between speed and
accuracy.
Don’t spend too much time on any one item. Each question on the test has the same weight. You
don’t get any extra credit for a difficult item, so don’t waste time on a question that seems too difficult.
Skip it! You can come back to it at the end of the test if you have time.
Educated guessing is always a good idea. When your raw score is computed, there is an adjustment
for wrong answers, but this adjustment is not intended to be a penalty! The adjustment is designed to
make sure that there is no advantage to guessing randomly. Theoretically, if you guessed randomly on
every item on a test, your raw score would be zero. (The points subtracted for wrong answers would

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About the SAT II: Subject Tests
3
ARCO
■  SAT II Subject Tests
www.petersons.com/arco
balance out the lucky guesses.) Therefore, random guessing is probably not a good strategy. On the other
hand, if you can eliminate even one answer choice on an item, then statistically it is to your advantage to
guess. So random guessing is out; educated guessing is in!
You don’t have to answer every question to do well. On an SAT II: Subject Test, you don’t have to
get 80 percent or more of the items correct to get an A or a B score. For most of the tests, if your raw score
(the number of correct answers minus the adjustment for wrong answers) is equal to 80 percent of the
maximum raw score, your scaled score will be in the high 600s or the low 700s. And a raw score equal to
50 percent of the maximum is not an F score, but an average or above-average score. Indeed, on the Math
Level IIC test, a raw score of 40 out of a possible 50 is a scaled score of about 780!