Process of elimination is a tricky beast. In a previous post, I talked about aggressive elimination as a very useful technique for ensuring right answers. I am certainly not the only tutor who suggests crossing out wrong answers. But I want to introduce a different way of thinking about multiple choice tests. I want to advocate searching for wrong answers in your process of elimination strategy.

In this 12 minute post, I explain exactly why you should start searching for wrong answers and then I give 3 examples (1 math, 1 reading & 1 writing) where I focus on crossing out wrong answers. I do this because I want to be left with the right answer. That is the simple outcome of SAT process of elimination.

That makes sense, doesn’t it? If you are left with the right answer, and if you know exactly why the wrong answers are wrong, then you MUST have gotten the question correct. Enjoy the video & my discussion below. Leave a comment if you have questions, comments, or screams of angst.

Why wrong answers are key for process of elimination

The SAT is definitely a difficult test for thousands of students. If you keep reading questions, picking answers, and hoping for the best, maybe you lack knowledge, maybe you lack strategy, and maybe you are asleep while taking the test. But I would wager many American dollars that you are just focusing on the wrong thing during prep.

When you practice, are you focusing on right answers? Of course you are!Everyone does. But, have you ever heard of a student getting the same questions on a real test that she had on a practice test? Very unlikely!

While there are a few outlier, and a few awesome test prep teachers, you are not likely to encounter the same question.

Each question has 5 potential correct answers. If you do your math, read your paragraph, and master your grammar, you may be able to see exactly why this particular question is right. But that is leaving so much learning and potential on the SAT table.

If, instead of focusing on getting the question correct, you focused on understanding why wrong answers were wrong, you would give yourself the training and the strategy to utterly destroy your SAT.

While few questions are repeated on the SAT, there are so many wrong answer trends that you would be foolish to ignore them. Focusing on wrong answers lets you find the wrong answer trends that will absolutely show up on your real SAT. You can see the common strategies test writers use to anchor certain answers in students.

Understanding why an answer is wrong is the key to doing well on the SAT. Guaranteed.

How to find wrong answers

When you are doing practice drills from the Official Guide, follow my step-by-step homework requirement:

1. Answer every question in a SAT section as quickly as possible – this is a timed test after all
2. Before you check your answers, review each answer choice to make sure you are happy with your selection
3. Go through every answer and write exactly why the wrong answers are wrong (If you picked C, figure out why A must be wrong)
4. Check your answers
5. Rinse-wash-repeat

You can absolutely train yourself to find wrong answers. If you do, I promise you will start to recognize SAT patterns very quickly and be well on your way to an excellent SAT score.

Let me know if you’ve ever had problems finding WHY an answer is wrong.