You can always come up with your own system. Just make sure you are consistent.The great artist Michelangelo once said that when he looked at a block of marble, he could see a statue
inside. All he had to do to make a sculpture was to chip away everything that wasn’t part of it. You should
approach difficult SAT multiple-choice questions in the same way, by chipping away everything that’s not
correct. By first eliminating the most obviously incorrect choices on difficult questions, you will be able
to focus your attention on the few choices that remain.
PROCESS OF ELIMINATION (POE)
There won’t be many questions on the SAT in which incorrect choices will be as easy to eliminate as they
were on the Azerbaijan question. But if you read this book carefully, you’ll learn how to eliminate at least
one choice on almost any SAT multiple-choice question, if not two or even three choices.
For more test-taking
information and strate-
gies, including POE, check
out the online videos,
which are available in your
Premium Portal!What good is it to eliminate just one or two choices on a four-choice SAT question?
Plenty. In fact, for most students, it’s an important key to earning higher scores. Here’s another example:
2.The capital of Qatar is
A) Paris.
B) Dukhan.
C) Tokyo.
D) Doha.On this question you’ll almost certainly be able to eliminate two of the four choices by using POE. That
means you’re still not sure of the answer. You know that the capital of Qatar has to be either Doha or
Dukhan, but you don’t know which.
Should you skip the question and go on? Or should you guess?
Close Your Eyes and Point
There is no guessing penalty on the SAT, so you should bubble something for every question. If you get
down to two answers, just pick one of them. There’s no harm in doing so.