Guessing on the Praxis I--Is "C" Always the Best Guess?

Guessing on the Praxis I--Is "C" Always the Best Guess?

Almost everyone has heard that if you have to guess on a multiple choice question, choice C is the best guess. A random guessing situation is especially likely to arise on a timed test like the Praxis I. Near the end, there are often some questions that you intended to come back to, but you just ran out of time. There is a minute to go on the test and you have no way of doing anything but guessing. Of course you should guess because it will be marked wrong if it is unanswered so you might as well take a shot at it.

Teacher certification exams like the Praxis I are long and you don't have all the time in the world to work on them. The time may come when you'll find yourself having to feverishly fill in some bubbles with random choices. What to do? Well here's what not to do: Don't simply choose C for every one you have to guess on.

The old adage that C is the best choice may have been true in the day when humans manually arranged the answer choices on multiple choice tests. Those days are long gone. Computer programs are in charge of arranging the answers on the Praxis I and they do a much better job of randomizing the location of the correct answer. On a properly constructed test, there is no discernible pattern to the occurrence of the correct answer choice.

There is a better way to guess on the Praxis I. Although you can find perhaps dozens of suggestions on the internet for how to make a guess on an answer, you're not going to have time to run through them all for each question. You have to get those bubbles filled in -- FAST! Remember these four main ideas when making a guess:

Do not choose answers that contain the words all, always, never, none, or other extreme language.
If there is one answer that looks a lot different than the rest, don't guess that one.
If two choices are very similar or are hard to tell apart, pick one of those.
If none of these methods is applicable, it makes absolutely no difference which choice you make.

So, if you get to the point on your Praxis I where you have to guess and you can't reasonably eliminate wrong answers, just pick your favorite letter and go with it! By the way, if there are only 10 seconds left on the test, no strategy is going to help. Make sure you leave at least 2 minutes to make your final Praxis I guesses, otherwise you really aren't using any strategy at all.

Summary: Now that computer programs are used to randomize the location of the answer choices on multiple choice tests like the Praxis I, it no longer makes sense to always choose "C" if you are in a guessing situation. There are some simple strategies you can use to maximize your guessing potential if you really have to guess.

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