Could somebody please explain this concept on the SAT, I don't understand it...?

Question

You gain one point for each correct answer on the SAT and lose a fraction a point (1/4) for each wrong asnwer. You do not lose any points for questions you leave blank.

*So, theoretically, you can answer two questions correctly and maintain a higher score than answering 4/10 questions correctly? I don't understand how this works. Is there a minimum amount of questions you must answer?

Answer 1

I'm not 100% sure, but I think that they want to penalize you for getting  a question wrond, so it is actually better to skip a question if you don't know the answer instead of guessing.

Answer 2

This rule is put into effect so that you don't simply guess on questions you aren't sure about. The SAT wants to test your knowledge, not give you points for some random guessing ability.

I agree, it's poorly worded.

It means that if you don't know the answer to a question and therefore decide to not fill in an answer bubble for it in the scantron, you get 1 point off.

However, if you decide to guess and fill in the bubble for that question on the scantron and you happen to guess incorrectly, you get 1.25 points off.

But if you're able to eliminate at least one answer choice you're supposed to guess.

If you answer two questions correctly out of 10 and don't answer the other 8 questions, you get 2 points. But if you answer 2 questions correctly and answer the other 8 questions incorrectly you get

2-(1.25*8)=

2- 10.00= -8 points

Answer 3

There is no way you can get negative scores on tests with guessing penalties, especially since they aren't graded without a curve/ complicated formula.

Like someone else said, the penalty is to keep people from randomly guessing. But as long as you can eliminate one of the answers, it is better to guess than to leave it blank because that gives you a 1/4 chance to get the answer and if you guess on 4 questions and get 1 right, which is very likely, you essentially make up the lost points for the other ones you guessed on.

You don't have to answer any number of questions correctly but if you guessed on them all and missed all of them or got only a few right, you'd get the same score, a 0.

This is why the ACT is better--no guessing penalty.