Strategy for Deciding Between Two Remaining Answer Choices

legal_eagle

Hello,
I often find myself eliminating three answer choices, resulting in two remaining choices that I waste undue amounts of time deciding between. Does anyone have any advice on a formulaic way of selecting an answer choice with the highest chance of accuracy while minimizing the amount of time lost? Thank you!

Matt Sorr

For me, to a large extent, it depends on the section of the test I'm dealing with. Are you referring to a specific section or not?

Chris Nguyen

Hey there!

When you're down to two answer choices, what's most likely the case is that you're down to the correct answer choice and a very attractive incorrect answer choice. So in this situation, I will allow myself to reread and reassess the two answer choices I'm down towards to slowly and carefully to try to resolve my misunderstanding. Now, if I can't understand it after one reread, I will not reread it a second or third time. Instead, I'll flag the question and move on. At that point it's diminishing returns and I'm no longer being efficient with my time.

Trying to "resolve my misunderstanding" will look a little differently depending on the situation I'm in and the type of question. If I don't understand what the AC is saying, I'll focus on breaking down the hard grammar on my reread. If I'm attempting and answer choice and it's a weakening question, I'll ask myself "which answer choice do I think makes the least amount of assumptions?". Hopefully this can give you some examples for you to figure out what's going on when you're down to 2 ACs.

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