12 Tips To Ace Your Multiple Choice Exam
Are you struggling to do well on MCQ exams?
Do you want to know tips and secrets that help you prepare better for them?
Do you want to know how top students handle MCQ exams?
We created an amazing guide that helps you manage MCQ exams more confidently and help get better grades in them.
What should I know first?
The key to doing well in MCQ questions is being able to differentiate minor differences between concepts and details.
The ideal way for you to do this is by making sure that you have a thorough understanding of the concept, and memorise the details which are associated with concepts.
Best place to start would be your lecture notes.
To make the most of this guide, you should have a deep understanding of the material. Especially, when it comes to MCQs you need to have a deep knowledge of the details associated with its concepts.
Read the following tips and add them to your arsenal.
1. Read the question and the options carefully and entirely.
Don’t jump to answer the question right away.
Take your time to read the question and the options carefully and entirely.
As mentioned in the earlier chapter, I recommend you read the question at least 2 times before proceeding to answer it.
When I was in university, I noticed that 50% of the questions I got wrong because I didn’t read the questions or the options correctly.
The way I focused on the question carefully was to use another piece of paper and cover up the rest of the options and questions and read it 2 times.
This helped me really target down on the question at hand and give a precise answer.
2. Answer the question in your mind first.
Once you read the question entirely, try to come up with an answer in your mind.
By giving yourself the opportunity to come up with your own answer, the answer you come with is more likely to be correct and you can be more confident with it.
I also noticed that these answers tend to be much more correct than the answers I come with after the process of elimination.
Take time to predict your answers before looking at your answer options. If you studied correctly you will see your answer on the options.
Apply this technique calmly practicing this during practice problems first. Then apply to actual exams.
3. Eliminate incorrect options.
If you cannot answer a question right away, eliminate all of the options you think are obviously incorrect.
Physically cross out any answers you think are incorrect as you are doing the process of elimination.
Every time you eliminate a wrong option, you increase the chances of getting the right answer by 20-25% depending on the number of options available.
This is better than randomly guessing an answer.
4. Answer the easy questions first.
By answering easy questions first, you save time and energy to tackle challenging questions later.
This does not mean you jump around the exam looking for easy questions. This will disrupt your flow.
Go through each question, one after the other, sequentially. If you cannot come up with an answer in the first 10 seconds or so, put your best answer, mark it and move on.
Sometimes our memories do not get recalled properly when we are working on a specific question. Thinking hard about the question may not help you recall necessary memories needed to answer the question precisely. This is because we may not have created strong enough memories to recall the correct answer.
In most cases, you may realize that you are able to answer those exact questions much more easily later because your brain has become warmed up and able to recall information more easily.
This was one of my favourite techniques to save time and energy for the exams without exhausting myself.
Exception is Math-based MCQ exams. You sometimes only know the answer after you do the calculation. Even with these questions, you can get the easy ones quickly out of the way, so you have more time for challenging ones later.
5. Use markings to handle challenging questions
This tip ties nicely with one above. As mentioned earlier, if you cannot answer a question within 1 minute or so, mark it, and come to it later.
This is a cool technique I learned from a Study Expert named Daniel Wong. I highly recommend his resources.
If you come across any challenging questions, put a star or circle on the question, and revisit them later.
For question you unsure the answer: put a circle.
For questions that is challenging and you don't know the answer: put a star.
These markings will help get your attention later when you are finished with easier questions. Using these markings will help you manage your exam and time much better.
If you are taking an online exam, the exam software will likely give you an option to mark the question for revisiting it later. Use this feature generously in the exam.
6. If you see two similar answer options, it's likely that one of them is correct.
If you notice two answer options similar to one another, it is likely that at least one of them will be correct.
It is unlikely your professor would create 2 incorrect answers that are similar to one another. It's likely that he or she is testing to see if you merely read the material or understood it.
7. If you see any two answer options that are opposite of one another, one of those options is probably the correct answer
This is a pattern I noticed more than often. I noticed that If I see two options that are completely opposite of another, at least one of those options tends to be correct.
8. In most cases, questions with “all of the above” options tend to be correct.
If you can find two options that are true, then “all of the above” is the correct option. This could differ from exam to exam, this is a tendency I have noticed among the exams I have taken.
For “none of the above” option, if you can find at least one true option, you can also eliminate the “none of the above” option.
9. When in doubt, choose the answer option that is longest and most detailed.
In order for the correct answer to be undeniably correct, your prof may add qualifying details to the option. This makes the correct answer option longer than the others.
Therefore, the longer, more detailed answer tends to be the correct one.
10. Don't leave any questions blank
Make sure that you don't leave any questions blank. Even if you have to skip and come back to the question, do not leave any questions blank. Any answer is better than no answer.
If you don’t know an answer to a question, take a good guess using the tips given to you in this chapter and move on.
The only exception is if you get negative points for wrong answers. I have yet to come across an exam that gives negative grades for attempts. But I heard there are some exams that are like that.
If there are no negative points, make sure that you don't leave any questions blank in the exam.
11. Take breaks every 10 questions to maintain or improve your focus and energy
When I wrote MCQ exams, I remember taking a break between every 10 questions.
This helped me really focus on narrowing down the task at hand. After every question I would treat myself with a 1-2 minute break.
I would use this time to do breathing exercises or just empty my mind and completely relax and thank myself for the questions I just answered.
I noticed that it really helped restore some of the mental energy that was lost when I was doing the questions.
12. Review your answers at least once
Always leave time to go through review rounds for the exam.
When you go through the exam a second time around, you will often discover that you may have misread a question and chose an obvious wrong answer. Since I ended up salvaging a few questions, I call these my “salvage rounds”.
In my experience, you can salvage about 2+ questions performing this method for every 50 questions.
We often misread questions due to distractions and information overload. Too much information thrown at us can cause us to skip or misread information that is necessary to answer accurately.
Since our memory works as a network, most concepts are interconnected with each other. Triggering one concept can often lead to triggering another concept.
Revisiting the questions can help you give more precise answers because of the triggering effect.
When I was in university, I would do a 3rd round just to make sure there were no errors, if there was enough time. Revisiting the questions multiple times helps really be sure about my answers and know that I did not miss anything.
I recommend you plan your time accordingly so you also have enough time to perform salvage rounds.
That it for today!
Much love!
