Tips For Taking Multiple-Choice Test - Sanger Unified School District (2024)

FAQs

Tips For Taking Multiple-Choice Test - Sanger Unified School District? ›

Read the questions and all of the choices carefully. Make sure you are reading what has been written and not what you hope or want to see. Then, pick out the one, best choice that answers the question. Make sure you read each question as a separate question and answer it as a separate question.

When numerical options vary greatly, chances are that the best response is in the middle ranges. Eliminate the highest and lowest options. Certain questions have answers that are closely related or almost identical, except for one detail. This should be your clue to choose one of the two similar answers.

I'm sure you've heard this at some point “if you don't know the answer, always guess C. because it's the most common correct option”. That's just a myth, and generally there are no most common answers on multiple choice tests.

Study regularly leading up to the exam, and try to organize your notes in a way that makes them easier to remember. Making flash cards, using mnemonic devices such as acronyms, drawing concept maps, or whatever suits your learning style and can help you learn more efficiently.

Look for Clue Words and Numbers

question and the correct answer often have verbs of the same tense and have nouns and verbs that agree. Underline familiar words or phrases from the lecture or textbook. Be aware of degrees of correctness.

Although test makers try to put the correct answers in random order, they fall into patterns. You can use that to get an edge when you have to guess a tough question. Ideally the items on such a test should stand a 50-50 chance of being true. Actually, true answers are rather more common.

Students perform poorly on multiple choice exams for a multiplicity of reasons: lack of understanding of the doctrines being tested, not being “test wise,” poor exam construction, to name just a few. It was necessary to find a way to separate out these different strands.

What should you not do when taking a multiple choice test? ›

Responses that use absolute words, such as "always" or "never" are less likely to be correct than ones that use conditional words like "usually" or "probably." Avoid choosing answers that are unfamiliar or that you do not understand.

A multiple choice item consists of a problem, known as the stem, and a list of suggested solutions, known as alternatives. The alternatives consist of one correct or best alternative, which is the answer, and incorrect or inferior alternatives, known as distractors.

Most people (and tutors) tell students that, if they have no idea on a question, to just guess answer choice “C” — the middle answer on most multiple choice tests.

Myth 2: C is the best guess letter and is right more often than any other letter. C or H are right (and wrong) as often as any other answer choice. The only guess letter you don't want to use when you are completely guessing is E or K because they only show up on the math test.

Using multiple-choice questions which have more than one correct option will make the question more difficult for students to answer. Rather than the student knowing that only one option is correct, they will be faced with the uncertainty of not knowing how many options are correct.