BASIC RULES FOR TAKING A MULTIPLE-CHOICE TEST

Student Handout

© 1995, Robert Runté
Faculty of Education,
University of Lethbridge

1. Read the question and try to answer it BEFORE looking at the answers.

    1. The capital of Alberta is
Read the question. You know the answer is "Edmonton". Start by looking for "Edmonton" among the answers. By thinking of the answer first, you are less likely to be fooled by a wrong answer.
    1. The capital of Alberta is
      A) Ottawa
      B) Calgary
      C) Edmonton
      D) Lethbridge
But make sure you look at all the answers before choosing:
    1. Edmonton can be described as Alberta's
      A) capital city
      B) largest city
      C) gateway to the north
      D) all of the above
Even though (A) is true, (D) is the correct answer. It is important to read all the answers, and not just take the first correct answer you see.



2. Do not spend too much time on any one question.

Sometimes the question will seem to have no right answer:
    1. The capital of Alberta is

      A) Red Deer
      B) Calgary
      C) Taber
      D) Lethbridge

Your teacher may have made a mistake. There may not be a right answer. It is important not to waste too much time trying to answer an impossible question. Choose an answer at random, but circle the question number so you can come back to it later if you have extra time. Go on to the next question.

Similarly, if a question is too hard, or you just do not know the answer, choose an answer at random and come back when you have completed all the questions you do know. Use whatever time is left over at the end of the test to tackle these very difficult questions.



3. If the question asks you something you do not know, see if you can cross out any of the wrong answers before you guess:
    1. The capital of Alabama is
      A) Montgomery
      B) Birmingham
      C) Edmonton
      D) Ottawa
You may not know anything about Alabama. But you do know that Edmonton and Ottawa are Canadian cities. So (C) and (D) must be wrong answers for this question. By crossing out Edmonton and Ottawa, you only have to guess between (A) or (B). That means you have a 50/50 chance of getting it right, just by guessing.

By carefully eliminating answers you know must be wrong, you can increase your chances of guessing correctly.

Imagine that you only know the answers to half the questions on a multiple-choice test. Normally, your score would be 50%. But if you can eliminate one wrong answer for each question you are unsure about, you could bring your score up to 67%. If you can eliminate two wrong answers for each question you are unsure about, you could raise your score to 75%.

[The answer to question 3 is (A). Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama, but Montgomery is the capital.]


4. Do not keep changing your answer.

Sometimes the question will seem to have two right answers:
    1. Which of the following is a capital city?

      A) Ottawa
      B) Calgary
      C) Edmonton
      D) Lethbridge

Choose the answer that seems best to you (Ottawa?) and move on to the next question. Do not keep changing your mind. Research shows that your first choice was probably the right one. Most people who change their answers will change from a correct one to a wrong one. Only change your answer if you are absolutely sure you made a mistake. (For example, if another question on the test reminds you of the right answer.)


5. After you have finished the test, go back to those questions you circled as being too hard or as having no right answer.

See if you can answer them now. Take as much time as you have. Never leave a test early, unless you are sure you have answered every question correctly.

If you still cannot answer the question, then guess. You have a 25% chance of getting it right anyway; more if you can eliminate one or more of the wrong answers. Never leave a blank on a multiple-choice test.



Note to Teachers: Feel free to copy and use the above student handout in your classroom, provided that you retain the copyright notice, make no changes, and do not benefit financially.

American Teachers: Click here for an Americanized version of the above content.



TEST WISE TRICKS

Student Handout

© 1995, Robert Runté
Faculty of Education,
University of Lethbridge

WARNING: THESE TRICKS WILL NOT WORK ON MOST PROVINCIAL TESTS OR OTHER WELL WRITTEN EXAMINATIONS


The best way to do well on a test is to know the answers. However, when faced with a question you cannot answer, these tricks will sometimes work on poorly written multiple choice tests. Only use them if you do not know the answer and have to guess anyway.



1. If you have absolutely no idea what the answer is, choose (C).

Teachers often try to "hide" the correct answer in the middle of the wrong answers. So they choose (C) for the correct answer more often than any other letter.



2. When you have to complete a sentence, see if one of the answers fits better grammatically than the others .

    1. A dog is an
      A) animal
      B) machine
      C) mineral
      D) vegetable
In this question, the "an" gives you a clue to the right answer, because you know the correct answer has to start with a vowel. "An animal" works, but it would have to be "a machine" or "a mineral" or "a vegetable" to be a correct sentence. Since the question says "a dog is an " rather than "a dog is a", the answer has to be "animal" -- because "animal" is the only one that fits with the "an" in the question.



3. Look to see if any of the answers repeats key words from the question.
    1. An example of a nuclear reaction is
      A) hydration
      B) combustion
      C) sublimination
      D) nuclear fission
Even if you do not know what the question means, the answer is probably (D) because it repeats a form of the word "nuclear", which is a key word in the question.



4. Look to see if any of the answers is much longer than the others.

The person making the test wants the right answer to be completely true. To make it completely true, they sometimes add more details to the correct answer, making it much longer than the others.
    1. The freezing point of water is
      A) 32 degrees Kelvin
      B) 32 degrees centigrade
      C) 0 degrees Fahrenheit
      D) 0 degrees centigrade for pure water at sea level
(D) is probably the correct answer.



5. See if one of the answers sticks out as the "odd one out".

Since there is only one correct answer to a question, that answer has to be different from the other answers. So if you see two or three answers that all mean the same thing, they must be the wrong answers.
    A) Boy
    B) Girl
    C) Son
    D) Lad


Since "Boy", "Son", and "Lad" all mean roughly the same thing, chances are the answer is "Girl", even if we do not know what the question was.

This trick is dangerous, however. Sometimes the "odd one out" can fool you. Maybe the answer was "Son" because it is the only answer about family relationships. But this trick might help if you are guessing blind anyway.



6. If you have to guess, and spot a typing error in one of the answers, choose one of the other answers.

Sometimes the teacher making a multiple-choice test will proofread it by reading the question, looking at the right answer, and going on to the next question. They forget to proof the wrong answers. So if there is an error, it is more likely to be a wrong answer. (This does not work as often since teachers started using computers and spell-checkers, but you can still check for homonyms.)



Note to Teachers: Feel free to copy and use the above student handout in your classroom, provided that you retain the copyright notice, make no changes, and do not benefit financially.



TEST-WISENESS TEST
After you have learned the test wiseness tricks for multiple choice tests, try them out on this quiz. (It's easier than it looks!)


1. The answer to this one refers to an...

Overture
Mountain
Building
Misnomer

2. In which pifflerock did the zorkrans inkle?

Gi hien
Gis inkle
Gish frankel
Gishen Fronks

3. If there were a question here, which would be the correct answer?

Vanquished
Victorious
Conquered
Defeated

4. Hixek norfolken piffle?

Hiku nippon ibitus
Efil Yadlan Ruoj
Yokon Gnithol
Ikkek zippo unkerzotz notiaplan hipposlump enslife yolent

5. Dome ukerland dimmel?

Nepal
Canada
Britian
United States

6. Zarfarkle, en Ko day?

Henkledorf
Ricktoffen
Ifetain
Krator

7. The correct answer here is...

Soveriegn
Glucose
Maveric
Masculinne

How did you do?

If you can score that well on a test where none of the questions make any sense, imagine how well you can do on a test for which you actually studied!

Remember: relax, stay calm, answer every question, do not spend too much time on any one question, and guess wisely when you have to guess.