Blanks vs best guesses
Empty answers cannot score.
← All countdown tipsA blank cannot score. A reasoned guess sometimes can. The last minute of every paper is for filling empty boxes, not for starting a new long method. This is not about luck — it is about a habit: strike what you can prove is wrong, then commit to what is left.
Picture it: four options, kill two
Crossing out two options is no longer a wild guess. Take the remaining letter.
Elimination in action — the whole habit in three frames
Why this actually adds marks — not just theory
Picture 10 questions left unanswered at the end of a paper with 4 options each. Leaving all 10 blank guarantees 0 marks from them. Guessing blind on all 10 tends to land roughly 2 to 3 correct, purely by chance. Striking out one clearly wrong option on each before guessing pushes that closer to 3 to 4— and striking out two, where you can, pushes it higher still. None of this needs new maths. It only needs the ten seconds it takes to ask “which of these can I prove wrong?”
Remember — empty lines cannot score
- Kent and Bexley multiple-choice: no extra penalty for a wrong letter.
- Cross out options you can prove are wrong, then pick from what remains.
- Do not change a first answer unless you found a clear mistake.
Elimination looks different in each subject
The habit is the same everywhere — strike what you can prove wrong — but what you look for changes with the subject.
English (vocabulary / SPaG)
Cross out any option that is the wrong word class (a verb where a noun is needed) or that means something in a completely different direction.
“The old house was ______.” with options crumbling, delicious, running, quietly — strike delicious (unrelated meaning) and running / quietly (wrong word class) first.
Maths
Strike options with the wrong units, the wrong size of number (too big or too small for the context), or that repeat a number already in the question.
A shopping-change question with options £0.20, £2.00, £20.00, 20p — £20 is far too much change from a £5 spend, and 20p / £0.20 are the same value written twice, so the real fight is usually between what is left.
Verbal reasoning
Test each option against the rule you found. If it breaks the pattern in an obvious way (wrong letter shift, wrong number of letters), it is out.
A code question where the rule is “+2 to each letter” — any option that shifts by a different amount, or that is not even the right word length, can be struck immediately.
Non-verbal reasoning
Count sides, shading, and number of shapes first. An option with the wrong count is wrong regardless of how similar it looks at a glance.
If every correct answer in a series needs exactly 3 dots and one shaded corner, an option with 4 dots is out before you even check its rotation.
Anatomy of a distractor — know the four disguises
Examiners do not invent random wrong numbers. Almost every wrong option is built from one of these four honest mistakes — recognising the shape helps you strike it faster.
Too big / too small
An answer well outside a sensible range for the story — e.g. a taxi fare of £400, or a class size of 3.
Swapped operation
The right numbers, wrong operation — adding instead of subtracting, or dividing instead of multiplying.
Unit trap
Correct value, wrong unit — pence instead of pounds, minutes instead of hours, or missing a % sign.
Halfway answer
A real number from partway through a multi-step method — correct working, but not the final job the question asked for.
Exam trap
Leaving three blanks “to be safe.” Those three ticks still have a chance. On these sittings a blank is almost never safer than a letter.
✗ Leave it empty to be safe
Safe for nobody — the mark is gone
✓ Strike two, pick one
Then flag if you want a later look
Decision patterns for the sittings this week
Rules, not new maths.
1 · Two left
You know C is too small and A repeats the first calculation. B or D remains.
- 1Strike A and C
- 2Pick B or D
- 3Flag if you want a later look
Guess — do not blank
2 · Unit mismatch
Three options are in pounds, one is in pence. If the question asked for pounds, strike the pence option first.
3 · Last 60 seconds
Scan for empty lines. Put a letter on every one. Then stop. Do not reopen finished questions.
4 · Changing answers
Change only when you can point to the error: wrong operation, unread last sentence, or a sign you flipped. A vague “this one feels better” is usually worse.
5 · You cannot solve it in time
A long working-out question with no time left for the full method. Skim the four options for one that is obviously too extreme (far too big, negative when it cannot be, or the wrong number of decimal places) and strike those first.
- 1Read the question once for size and units, not for the full method
- 2Strike anything impossible on size or unit grounds
- 3Guess from what is left rather than attempting the full working under pressure
6 · Two options look almost identical
Options like £4.20 and £4.02, or 35 and 53 — these near-twins usually mean one is a genuine slip a candidate could make (swapped digits, a sign error). If your working matches one exactly, trust it over a “nicer-looking” number nearby.
7 · A whole block of questions, not one
If you run out of time with a full page still blank, do not try to read every question properly in the last 30 seconds. Go straight down the page and pick the same letter (for example, always C) for every remaining blank — a single consistent guess across several questions beats leaving them all empty.
Coach tip: the last sweep is “any empty lines?” — not “shall I redo Q4?”
Tomorrow (D-2): Bexley versus Kent — what actually changes on the day.
Next step
Practice link coming soon for this day — explore all practice topics.
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