[codexon]

I don't see what's wrong with the guessing mechanism.

If you cannot eliminate any answers, then your average expected score gain will be the same as not answering.

If you can eliminate choices, then your average expected score gain will be proportional to how many answers you've eliminated.

If a group fails to realize this I would say the SAT was successfully in measuring their cognitive abilities in this regard.

[gohrt]

is the SAT about [whatever it's testing], or is it about how good you are at estimating your confidence in your partial-guesses?

[codexon]

The penalty is designed so that you will not gain more points than you deserve if you guess and had no idea which answers were wrong.

If there are 5 choices and you randomly guess, you have 4/5 chances to get -1/4 and 1/5 chance to get 1 point. That means if you had no idea which answer is correct, you will net 0 points over the long run, and this will be the same as leaving the question blank. 4/5 * -1/4 + 1/5 = 0.

If you are able to eliminate 1 choice, you will on average get 1/4th more points by picking a random answer among the remaining choices. If you are able to do that, then you deserve the extra points, because it took more knowledge for you to eliminate it.

Anyone that doesn't realize this deserves to have a lower score, and if you can't eliminate answers then you also deserve a lower score. Bringing in racial and gender biases into this is ridiculous.

[Retric]

It's a completly arbitrary choice that happens to benifit white males. Of course people are going to bring up racial and gender bias issues.

[codexon]

I just showed you it wasn't an arbitrary choice and that it has a mathematical basis.

Someone who has the ability to eliminate at least 1 choice understands the question better than someone who doesn't know what the question is asking at all, and is appropriately rewarded for it.

[Retric]

If they removed the penalty and automatically guessed for questions left blank that would have the same effect mathematically, but women would score better. (AKA blank questions would be worth (1/number of choices) on average and educated guessing would improve your score on average.)

So, it is an arbitrary choice.

[codexon]

That's the most awful suggestion I've ever heard.

You want a test to introduce MORE randomness just to please 1 group of people on a test that is supposed to measure your math ability including the ability to understand their simple guessing penalty?

You want everyone to think in the back of their mind that they got screwed by the SAT's random number generator or that some idiots hit the jackpot and get a much higher score than they should have?