Guessing on the LSAT: there is no penalty, so never leave a blank

Your score comes from the number of questions you answer correctly. A wrong answer and a blank one are worth the same: nothing. So an unanswered question is a chance thrown away for free, and there is never a reason to leave one.

Fill everything, always

Before time is called on any section, every bubble should have something in it. If you can see the clock running out, stop working and fill the remainder. Twenty seconds of filling beats one more question attempted and five left blank.

This is the single easiest points-per-effort action available on the entire exam, and people still lose points to it every administration, usually because they were mid-question when time was called.

Guess better than random when you can

• Eliminate anything you can, even one. Removing a single choice meaningfully improves the odds on that question.
• Prefer the more modest option. Answers matching the passage's hedging are credited more often than absolute ones — though this is a tiebreaker, not a rule to lean on.
• Be wary of a choice that reuses the passage's distinctive vocabulary while changing what it claims. Familiar wording attracts guesses by design.
• If you are truly blind, pick a letter and use it consistently rather than spreading guesses around. It does not improve the odds, but it is faster and removes a decision.

Know when a guess is finished

The expensive mistake is not guessing — it is spending three more minutes converting a guess into a slightly better guess. Once you are down to two with no defect visible, more time rarely changes the outcome and definitely costs you elsewhere.

Flag it, answer it, move. You can come back if the section allows and you have time left, and you will often see it differently on a second pass — which is a better use of those minutes than staring at it on the first.