MULTIPLE CHOICE

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If there’s one universal student experience, it’s writing the multiple-choice test. The good thing about multiple-choice questions: You don’t have to write out the answer in sentences and paragraphs, wondering if you’ve hit what the instructor is looking for, risking spelling and grammar errors. The answer is right there underneath the question! The bad thing about multiple choice: If you’re not quite sure which is the right answer, you don’t have a chance to show what you do know in expository form.

Assuming that you have done your review and maybe even followed Tip #1 and made up your own exam questions, what else can you do to prepare? You can seek out any practice or past exams–answer each question before you look at the answer. And review the syllabus.

Then on to the actual exam.

The multiple-choice section of the exam is made up of (a) directions and (b) questions. Um, I mention that, because it’s easy to skip through the directions, not noticing key directions, such as Right minus Wrong scoring, or “You are to pick the TWO most important answers for each question” or “You are to ignore events before 1842.” 

Check how much time you have, then skim quickly through all of the questions before you begin. Sometimes information in later questions gives clues to earlier questions. If some of the questions are obvious to you, answer them first. This is a confidence booster, and ensures that you don’t miss easy points if you run short on time. It also gives your subconscious extra recall time for the tougher questions. If the most recent material covered in class is at the end and is freshest in your mind, you may actually answer the questions in reverse order.

Check the time left, and allocate the maximum time you will spend on each of the remaining questions. Allow 5 to 10 minutes at the end for going over your questions to make sure you haven’t missed any questions, and have bubbled what you meant to bubble.

When tackling the more challenging items, it helps to know the structure of a multiple-choice question. The question or part you are given to complete is the stem. It may be a simple statement, or it may contain a fair amount of content. If there are key points in the content, jot them on your scrap paper.

Then the multiple choices you are to select from. Here are the answer and the distractors (a.k.a. the wrong answers). There is often one distractor that is quite close to the right answer. If you are hung between two that you feel are equally correct, try reverse analysis. Instead of asking which choice is the right answer, ask of each choice “How could this one be wrong?” If you only have one distractor, as in True/False questions, ask of each choice, “How could this be false?”

If you are still unsure, and scoring is not Right minus Wrong, GUESS!!! It’s like a bet where you have a 1 in how-ever-many-choices-in-the-question chance of winning if you guess, and a 0 chance if you don’t. Sometimes a student will hesitate to guess for fear of choosing the wrong answer and looking dumb. Consider: if you leave the question blank, not only do you have a zero chance of getting it right, it’s pretty obvious that you did not know the right answer. So guess.

I’ve already mentioned leaving time to review your answers. What should you do if you change your mind about a question you were uncertain of? Should you change your answer? Research shows that you will probably be worse off if you change your answer than if you stay with your first choice. There are always exceptions, for example, if you notice that you missed choosing the “least” important factors and chose the “most” important factors instead. But most of the time the odds are in your favour by sticking with your first choice.

You’re done! Ideally, you will have used up all of your time with a few minutes to spare, and can look forward to a moment of congratulation for answering as best you could while optimizing your chances of a good grade through using a strategic exam approach.

Summarizing the take-home points for multiple choice exams:

Preparing:

  • Know your material.
  • Make up exams and do practice exams.

Writing the exam:

  • Read the directions.
  • Make note of key words in the stem and stem content.
  • Answer the easy questions first.
  • Analyze and reverse analyze the choices to weed away the distractors from the answer.
  • If you don’t know, guess.
  • Leave time to check over your answers.
  • When ambivalent, go with your first choice.

That’s it for my tips on preparing for and writing multiple-choice exams. Let me know how these work for you!

I’d like to explore with you how we can customize a program to move you toward your goals this fall. Connect with me here: [email protected]  

The information in this blog cannot take the place of support from your own mental health professional or community health resources. Reach out to them. And IF YOU ARE IN CRISIS PLEASE DIAL 911.