Guessing during prep tests

etphonehome

I feel like this is a dumb question but I'm just curious. If you guys have unanswered questions when taking a prep test, are you guys guessing? Say you have 2 mins left and have 3 unanswered questions, are you guys leaving them blank? I leave them blank in order to get an accurate diagnostic. Just wondering what others are doing. I know for the actual test it's best to just guess if you have questions remaining, but what about our preps?

Not Ralph Nader

@etphonehome I left them blank during PTs but made sure to BR them. Seeing the blanks motivated me to be faster and skip on the next PT.

Cant Get Right

I think either way is okay. If you do guess on 10 questions, for example, I don't think that's going to inflate your score. In that situation, you ought to get 2 right. Those 2 right answers should count towards your score. The main thing during the PT/BR process is to make the distinction between answering a question correctly and understanding. A blind guess is no worse than attempting a question and getting the right answer for the wrong reason. Actually, it's probably marginally preferred.

marcosmcqueen

What's the goal of a practice test? To figure out what you know, what you don't know, and how effective your test strategies are. Of the three elements, I'd say that understanding what you don't know is the most important.
In the end, as long as you're clearly marking what you don't know and can identify that during blind review you should be fine.
I, personally, didn't guess during practice tests. I wanted to find out exactly what I knew and what I didn't. By leaving skipped questions blank I knew, without a doubt, that the question had bested me and that it deserved extra time and attention.
I also looked at it as a form of resistance training... sort of like LSAT weight lifting. If I could get to my target scores without guessing, then I'd be able to surpass those scores on test day. It sort of made the guess questions a bonus. On test day I'd have an advantage.
I don't think there's a correct answer, as long as you're clearly marking them for blind review.