{"id":1056,"date":"2013-06-24T09:00:04","date_gmt":"2013-06-24T09:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/?p=1056"},"modified":"2016-02-04T17:03:38","modified_gmt":"2016-02-05T01:03:38","slug":"how-to-skip-sat-questions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magoosh.com\/sat\/how-to-skip-sat-questions\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Skip SAT Questions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Note: This post has been updated to reflect changes to the SAT beginning in March 2016.<\/em>
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No wrong answer penalty on the SAT<\/h2>\n

To skip or not to skip? That is the question…that used to keep SAT students up at night. The old SAT had a wrong answer penalty of -\u00bc point. So that meant that blind guesses weren\u2019t advisable because the odds were decidedly not in your favor. But the current SAT DOES NOT<\/strong> have a wrong answer penalty. So rejoice! You should ALWAYS bubble in an answer for everything on the SAT.<\/strong> <\/p>\n

If your proctor tells you there is one minute left, your first priority should be to put down answers for everything you have left before he or she announces \u201cpencils down.\u201d Unless you are truly unfortunate, you are bound to pick up a few lucky guesses this way and thus get a better score than if you had left answers blank. It\u2019s probably the easiest way out there to improve your SAT score!
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When to skip questions on the SAT and come back to them<\/h2>\n

However, this doesn\u2019t mean there aren\u2019t many instances in which you would want to skip questions and come back to them. <\/p>\n

For example, you are under no obligation to do the questions within a section in order. On the Reading test, for example, you might want to do the passages written at a lower reading level first or maybe the science passages instead of the fiction passage if you\u2019re a science geek. Go for it; just make sure you are careful that you are aren\u2019t marking in answers under the wrong numbers.
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