Tips From a College Professor for Taking Multiple Guess Tests
Jul 15 '01 (Updated Jul 16 '01)
The Bottom Line These tips are likely to help raise your grade on multiple choice tests.
Following these tips will increase you chance of performing well on a multiple choice test. For the purpose of this epinion, I am going to assume that you already know that you need to thoroughly understand the course material to do well on tests. However, you also need to know how to take various types of tests in order to maximize your grade.
I am going to give you some suggestions that are based on my own experience: as a student, someone who has studied test development, as a professor who has developed MANY, MANY, MANY multiple choice tests, and as a professor who has listened to my students when they described how they misread questions.
WHAT ARE MULTIPLE GUESS TESTS?
Basically, as multiple guess test is the way many students describe a multiple choice test. With this type of test, you are given a question (stem) and several choices for answers from which you must select the right answer.
DOES ONE HAVE TO STUDY FOR A MULTIPLE CHOICE TEST ANY DIFFERENTLY THAN ANY OTHER TYPE OF TEST
If you know all of the course material 100% well, then my answer would be "NO". However, 99.9999999% of all students (and professors) do not know ALL of the material. So, for the rest of us, we need to study differently for multiple choice tests than for other tests. With a good multiple choice test, there will be one correct answer and at least one answer that appear correct to students who have some understanding of the subject but not a thorough one. To do well on these tests, you need to be able to differentiate between the correct answer and the almost correct answer. Part of this ability will come from knowledge of the course material and part will come from you skill at taking multiple choice tests.
TIPS FOR TAKING MULTIPLE CHOICE TESTS
General Tips -- To Be Used On All Questions
1. Read the ENTIRE question and ALL of the choices. You don't know how many times, students (including myself) have received lower scores on tests simply due to not reading the question. To make sure that you are reading ALL of the words, as you read the question, place your pencil over the corresponding word being read. Yes, I KNOW that in first grade you were told not to do this when reading. And, for everyday reading, this process will slow you down. However, when taking a test, this will help you. Just believe me. Our perceptual processes in the the brain are very complicated. Therefore, we tend to see what we expect to see even if something different is written when we read things a phrase at a time. (Did you see the error I purposely made in the sentence before the last one?) You need to read things a WORD at a time on the test.
2. As you read the question (stem), ask yourself what the answer is before you look at the choices. But don't forget to read all of the choices.
3. Look for KEY words. If you are allowed to write on your test, bring a HIGHLIGHTER and highlight them. Examples of SOME key words and stems including them are listed below:
EXCEPT. With this you are looking for the exception.
"All of the following were personality theorists except _____."
NOT. Be VERY careful when you encounter a negative. This is one word MANY people do not see when taking tests.
"Which of the following is not a sensory receptor?"
NEVER. Again you will be looking for exceptions here.
"Which of the following could never be in the divisor of a fraction?"
BEST. With this key word, all of the choices may be correct. However, one is more correct than the rest.
"What is the best explanation for why the sun always rises in the east?"
BETTER Similar to best.
"According to Skinner, what is the better method of disciplining children?"
4. Be Careful When You Change Any Test Questions. I STRONGLY advise students to review all test questions before turning in the test. But I also caution students to be careful when changing any answers. If you find a question where you would like to change the answer, read that question and all of your choices at least 3 times before changing the answer. Use your pencil to point to each of the words each time your do this. Then ask yourself three questions:
(a). Why did I select the first choice?
(b). Why is that choice wrong?
(c). Am I SURE that this new choice is correct?
5. If you are using one of those scantron sheets where you have to fill in the circles (or rectangles), make sure that you fill in the proper areas completely and do not put any stray marks on the answer sheet. Be sure to THOROUGHLY erase any incorrect answers. Also, make sure that you are filling in the answer for the correct question. This is CRITICAL. It is very disheartening to have a student get a very low grade because they skipped a question somewhere and all of the remaining answers are off.
6. Make sure that you answer all questions. Turn the test over to make sure that there are no questions on the reverse side of the sheet. There have been several times when I had students turn in tests where only 1/2 of the questions were answered since they did not see the questions on the reverse side. Also, it is very easy to skip one or two questions. So, don't let your grade get wrecked due to skipping questions.
7. Watch out for choices like the following: "a and c are correct", "all of the above", and "none of the above". If one does not thoroughly read all of the choices, they may have chosen a correct response (i.e. "a") but if response "d" says "a and c", then they may not get the answer correct.
8. If you are taking a multiple choice test in math, be aware that the professor knows the common mistakes that students make and will list these incorrect answers as possible choices. So, just because your answer matches one listed on the test, that does not mean that you got the correct answer.
9. Don't be upset if other students are getting done with the test well before you. I have noticed a clear association between grades and who finishes tests first. The first ones to finish RARELY score well on tests. On multiple choice tests, they tend to be the ones who later say, "I just made a bunch of stupid mistakes." And, some of these students are 'good' students. They just seem to be too much in a rush and do not carefully read every question.
Tips For When You Don't Know the Correct Answer and Have to Guess
1 Determine whether or not you are going to be penalized for wrong answers. In all tests, you do not get any credit for wrong answers. However, on some tests, not only do you not get credit but you can lose more points for wrong answers (be penalized for wrong answers). These types of tests are fairly rare in the classroom; however, I have been the victim of several of these. DO NOT GUESS on tests where you are penalized for wrong answers. However, on all other tests, may sure that you select answers for all questions, even if it is a pure guess.
2. Eliminate wrong answers. If you can write on the test, cross off the letter or number next to the wrong answer. This will reduce your choices and make it more likely that you be able to guess at the correct answer, if necessary.
3. If you cannot eliminate any of the answers, don't choose "A" or "1" as your answer. Research has indicated that the first choice tends to be "close to being correct" but another choice is the "correct" one. Most teachers, including myself, will either consciously or unconsciously put an answer that "sounds good" first so that students who are rushing through the test and not reading the material will think that the first choice is correct. Ok, we don't try to trick students. But for the test to truly differentiate between the students who know a little about the material and those who thoroughly understand the material, these choices are necessary. Similarily, if you have eliminated several wrong answers and have to guess between two choices, the first choice is PROBABLY not correct so choose something else.
4. Look at the length of the answers. If all of the answers are very short and one is considerably longer, the longer one is PROBABLY the correct answer. Now, I would be much more reluctant to say that the converse is true. If you have several long answers and one short answer, I would be hesitant to recommend choosing the short one. The reason for this is that there are many times when I am selecting wrong answers for question and have difficulty thinking of the last choice. So, I may just insert almost anything as a choice. When I am in this mode, the choice is typically a short one because my brain is dead at that point.
5. Consider whether or not the choices are grammatically correct. When the stem is an incomplete sentence and the answer completes the sentence, the correct answer tends to grammatically match the stem. So, if some choices do not form grammatically correct statements, those choices are PROBABLY wrong. For example you could probably rule out (d) since that choice does not form a grammatically correct statement.
"Communicating, cooking, and ____ are all examples of ADL."
a. shopping
b. socializing
c. bathing
d. study
6. Pay attention when choices begin with a vowel. Again, the answers tend to form a grammatically correct statement. So, pay attention to what comes before the ____.
A bullet entered an _____ lobe of the patient's brain, resulting in blindness.
a. occipital
b. temporal
c. parietal
d. frontal
The only grammatically correct answer would be (a). So, that is PROBABLY the correct answer.
7. Pay attention to "a(n)" symbols. Here is an example:
Carl Roger's suggests that parents utilize a(n) _______ style of parenting.
a. finger licking
b. authoritative
c. hypocritical
d. butt-smacking
When I first write a question like this, I would write "an" instead because that is the way my brain is programmed to write. I assume that most other professors are the same way. So, usually the "a(n)" is an afterthought when I realize that only one of my choices begins with a vowel. If your professor only uses "a(n)" before certain ____s, then you are fairly certain that the correct answer begins with a vowel.
8. Trust your 'gut'. If when you are reading the possible choices, and one just "sticks out" in your mind for some reason, that is LIKELY to be the correct answer. So, if you don't KNOW the correct answer, go with the one that "sticks out" for you.
9. If all else fails, choose "c" or "3". Statistics show that the "c" answer is the correct answer SLIGHTLY more often than the others.
FINAL NOTE
Good professors do NOT try to trick students on multiple choice tests. However, good multiple choice questions are very difficult to develop. So, if you encounter a test question that either has two (or more) correct answers or no correct answer, bring this to the attention of the instructor either during the test or after the test. I (and any decent instructor) really appreciate it when students let me know about errors on the test. Typically, I will "throw out" the test question and give everyone credit for that question.
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
luv_sunshine
|
|
Location: Illinois
Reviews written: 62
Trusted by: 31 members
|
|
|
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.