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The devil you know is WORSE than the devil you don't know

3/15/2011

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On the SAT sentence completion section, many students are afraid to pick words that they don't know.

Ex. The free-spirited Eva would change her mind frequently, causing her friends to label her as ______.

A. capricious
B. sophisticated
C. mysterious
D. arrogant
E. pragmatic

Okay, being the trickster that it is, the SAT is hoping that you'll pick one of the words that you do know, rather than one of the more difficult (and correct) words.

Is Eva "sophisticated?"  Maybe, I don't know her.  But there isn't enough evidence in this sentence to support that idea.  Still, students sometimes try to convince themselves that the word that they do know is the right one.  Don't be a scaredy cat!

By my calculations, if there are any words in this question that you don't know, they are "capricious" and "pragmatic."  Now, you definitely know "sophisticated," "mysterious" and "arrogant."  And you definitely know none of those are the answers!  So live a little and pick one of the words you DON'T know.

Pick "capricious?"  You got it!  "Capricious" means "constantly changing," just like our friend Eva.  Even if you picked "pragmatic," which means "practical," the statistics were still on your side.  

A 50% chance of getting it right is 100% better than a 0% chance of being right.  That's just simple math, baby.
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