<p>In a 50/50 situation with 3 other choices eliminated in the sentence completition, you pull the trigger and pick the choice you think it is, but it ends up being the other choice? Why is it that I’m always bad at making 50/50 guesses?</p>
<p>For example, the VERY FIRST QUESTION on my practice test.</p>
<p>Lexy’s joy at finding the perfect Christmas gift for John was _____, for she still had to find presents for the cousins and Uncle Bob.</p>
<p>A) transient
B) antithetical
C) exuberant
D) exhaustive
E) incontrovertible</p>
<p>So right off the bat, I eliminated b, c, and d because I knew they wouldn’t work. So I know it had to be either A or E. (100%) … but the problem? I had no idea what A and E meant. So I’m in a 50/50 situation and pulled the trigger and chose E. But the answer? A. I was so frustrated. These happen a lot to me. Anyone else hate it?</p>
<p>Yeah I hate when this happens too. I don’t really think there’s much you can do about it honestly, except just knowing what the word means. In this case, if you read out the sentence with both words, transient kinda sounds better, but I’m not sure if this is the case with all of these scenarios.</p>
<p>Yea. They always tell you to go with your “first instinct”. But I take so long to mull over the two prospective answers that I eventually forget which one was my first instinct :(</p>
<p>Here’s an interesting article:
[When</a> You Guess, Beware of Your Hunches - FamilyEducation.com](<a href=“SAT Guessing Tips - FamilyEducation”>SAT Guessing Tips - FamilyEducation)
"On hard questions, those on which you’re most likely to be in doubt, your first hunches are extremely suspect. The only exception to doubting your first hunch would be if you are consistently scoring in the 700 range or above on the reading, writing, or math tests. Once you’re scoring near or above 700, you can begin to rely on your hunches on difficult questions—so long as those hunches don’t point toward a popular answer choice, one that you know would appeal to many students. "</p>