# Do I Guess When I Don't Know



## wjrez (Apr 8, 2013)

I am really freaking out! I have not been able to put in the time I wanted to and I needed to, but it is what it is. I am taking in my tabbed NEC, NESC, Camera book, NCEES tests and sample problems along with the GA Tech notes I got and giving it my best shot. The strategy is to be able to work the problems I know (or think I do) first and then go back to the ones that I passed on originally. What if I begin to run out of time and do not have the problems answered? I am assuming that if I do not answer they are wrong, so I might as well guess. Right? So is there an appropriate guessing strategy? I know, I am overthinking this while I am in panic mode. Given we are only 4 days away, I don't think I can do anything other than panic in hopes that I will realize the futility and then be so relaxed that I pass!! (or pass out).


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## Dexman PE PMP (Apr 8, 2013)

Depending on the amount of time, you can always "reverse engineer" the problem based on the answers provided. But yes, if you have 10 minutes left and 15 unanswered problems, go ahead and guess. Any "blank" is automatically wrong, but you have a 20-25% chance (depending on 4 or 5 options) of getting it right if you guess.


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## tim1981 (Apr 8, 2013)

To answer your question, yes you are better off guessing than leaving it blank. On average, 25% of your guesses will be right. These odds increase greatly if you guess in the following order: CABDD BCCAB BBACD DDCBA Of course I'm joking about that last part.

As for how to approach the time constraint, keep in mind that reading the same question twice takes twice as much time. If you read every problem and only answer the ones you know how to solve, and you take the time you need to solve the problems you understand, how much time are you really going to have to re-read the problems and make educated guesses?

I made this mistake on my practice test. On first read I skipped over 75% of the problems. Then I started back at the beginning and did all of the "I think this will work" guesses. When I started over the third time to do all my "I'll just look up this word and see what equation pops up" guesses, I was almost out of time and had to blind guess on the last 25% of the practice test, when I could have given educated guesses instead.

I'm not planning on revisiting any of the problems. If know that I'll need all of the time that I'm given, so if I don't know the answer, I'm just going to guess. If I think I can make a reasonable guess if I search the book aimlessly, I will mark my initial guess and note the question as worth revisiting if I have the time.


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## Lumber Jim (Apr 9, 2013)

make an educated guess if you can by spending 30 seconds eliminating obvious incorrect answers. For many of the questions this will be difficult to do but for me it was worthwhile because it helped me feel like I wasn't going at it blind and got my mind thinking logically. Spend the next couple of days thinking about time management. I finished about 15 minutes early in the morning and 30 minutes early in the afternoon. This was not because I knew all the answers but had either worked everything that I thought I could or had made an educated guess that I was comfortable with and was at the point where revisiting questions would not be fruitful. The best thing that you can do now is RELAX. Make sure to bring ear plugs and chew gum during the test (the chewing gum gets you into a rhythm which helps keep you relaxed)

I wish you the best of luck!

P.S. - Get a good nights sleep (easier said than done but do your best  )


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## Judowolf PE (Apr 9, 2013)

Just my 2 cents, take it for what it's worth...I'd knock out the NEC and low hanging fruit first(easy straight forward questions), do a pass thru and get those out of the way. Hopefully this gets you 10-15 questions under your belt each session that you are pretty sure about getting the answer right on and gives you a chance to catch your breath a little, then tackle the computation problems that you know, these should also be fairly straight forward and another 20 questions that you should feel pretty certain about, then finally take on the brain benders. These questions are there to waste your time, bog you down and turn you around. These questions eat up your time, not that you can't solve them, but finding the right formula or information needed takes more time than the normal question. Don't let one or two questions eat up your time, if you don't know right off how to solve them, move on and come back. One or two questions won't fail you, but rushing thru 10-15 questions you could have solved easily because you wasted time on two early questions might...


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## Judowolf PE (Apr 9, 2013)

Ohh best of luck this week, get some rest and lightly run thru some stuff to keep yourself fresh, but don't cram at this point, if you don't have it by now you'll just stress yourself out and blow it...


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## Krakosky (Apr 9, 2013)

If it helps, I passed both the FE and PE on my first attempt and ran out of time on both tests in both the morning and afternoon. I attribute my passing to being certain about the problems I did have time to do. I then guessed on the ones I ran out of time on after eliminating any obvious wrong answers. Also, guess the same letter bc it increases the probability of getting more correct.


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## Lumber Jim (Apr 10, 2013)

guessing the same letter increases the probablilty of getting more correct... Good one!!


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## Dexman PE PMP (Apr 10, 2013)

^^^ Since the answer to each problem is theoretically mutually exclusive to it's predecessor, there is no statistical difference between guessing the same letter each time versus randomly picking.


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## Lumber Jim (Apr 10, 2013)

Dexman PE said:


> ^^^ Since the answer to each problem is theoretically mutually exclusive to it's predecessor, there is no statistical difference between guessing the same letter each time versus randomly picking.


exactly right.


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## Dexman PE PMP (Apr 10, 2013)

Although I do get really nervous if my scantron shows the same letter being used more than 2 consecutive times after working the problems out...


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## pabelong PE (Apr 10, 2013)

Two suggestions I've seen that I think will be helpful for the exam Friday (I'm taking the Chem E) are:


half fill circles for questions that you've guessed on in case there is time to go back and check the answer. should take just a minute to completely fill in the answer at the very end if you are out of time. (don't forget to wear a watch)
use one of the 4 answers given as the starting point for calculations requiring iteration

Good luck!


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## wjrez (Apr 10, 2013)

You guys have been great in all your suggestions. Although it is no excuse, I did not take the time necessary to prepare properly and so I am going in cold. I made my own bed here, but panic will not do any good. I resigned myself to do the best I can given what I have and hope for the best. I am certain that if I were to scan the room, I would not be alone in this situation. All of it is no comfort as it relates to passing, but it is what it is now and all one can do is the best they can.

To all of you, the best of luck (if luck is needed!!) and I hope you all come back with success stories.


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