Students who take the ACT are often unsure of whether or not they should guess if they don’t know how to answer a question.

Is it okay to guess on the ACT?

The answer is—emphatically—yes! The ACT has no guessing penalty—and as a result, you shouldn’t leave any question blank.

That doesn’t mean you should guess wildly on every question, though. You should still practice intelligent elimination (that is, using what you know and what you can glean from the question to eliminate answer choices) before guessing. But by all means, once you’ve done that, guess! Even if you know absolutely nothing about a question, guess!

How can guessing help your ACT score?

Consider two students of equal ability. One of them’s clued in to the guessing strategy I’ve just described, and the other isn’t sure if guessing is allowed or penalized and so decides to play it safe.

The student who knows how to guess, and guess aggressively, is likely to score a few points higher than the student who only answers questions he or she feels confident enough to answer.

Don’t miss out on these free points! They just might tip the college scales in your favor!

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