How should I handle a question I don't know on the exam?
In my experience, roughly 10% of questions on the actual exam come from topics you've genuinely never studied, no matter how thoroughly you prepared — just knowing that in advance makes it less unsettling when it happens.
Short Answer
In my experience, roughly 10% of questions on the actual exam come from topics you've genuinely never studied, no matter how thoroughly you prepared — just knowing that in advance makes it less unsettling when it happens. For a question that's completely unfamiliar, guess immediately and move on: with four answer choices, your odds are about 25% whether you spend one second or one hour deciding, so there's no benefit to lingering.
What You Should Know
There's a second category worth treating differently: a question that feels vaguely familiar — like you've come across it somewhere before and feel like you might recall it with more thought. Spending a long time on it right away usually doesn't resolve it anyway.
My Recommendation
- Completely unfamiliar, never studied: pick any answer and move on immediately — the odds don't improve with more time.
- Vaguely familiar, might come back to you: check your best guess, flag it to revisit, and keep moving. Working through other questions afterward often jogs loose the memory you couldn't access in the moment. If it still doesn't come back, use whatever time you've saved to give it one real, focused attempt at the end.
Bottom Line
Completely unknown → guess and move on right away. Vaguely familiar → mark your best guess, flag it, and come back to it later instead of stalling on it now.
Next step
Check your basics, then find your weak areas
Ready to Prep: try 5 basic SPI physics questions with full explanations — no account needed. ReadyScore is a separate, free exam-style diagnostic that shows your weak areas.
ReadyScore is an independent study diagnostic, not an official ARDMS score prediction.
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