Multiple Choice Test Taking Strategies A game you

Multiple Choice Test Taking Strategies A game you should always play to win

Introduction: What do you already know? • Multiple choice questions are like a game, and you must play to win. • The answer is always there, you simply have to figure out which one is the winner and which choices are the trash choices. • To find the winning answer, you must use: • Prior or Existing Knowledge • Careful examination of the key words in the question and answer choices • Common sense

Process of Elimination • The most basic rule with multiple choice questions is to use process of elimination to find the winning answer. However, there are other strategies that you can use to help improve your ability to find the winner. • Typically, multiple choice questions have at least one or two answer choices that are obvious trash choices and one or two answer choices that seem like they could be correct. • It is your job to use as many strategies as possible to figure out and eliminate the choices that are trash and find the one winning choice.

Step 1: Understanding the Question • How can you possibly expect to find the winning answer choice if you don’t even understand what the question is asking? • If you don’t understand a word or phrase in a question choice, do the best you can to get clarification, either by using a dictionary to look up unknown words or asking a teacher, or both. • Step 1: Make sure to understand what the question is actually asking.

Step 2: Understanding the Answer Choices • How can you be sure that an answer choice is a winner or a trash choice if you don’t know what it is? • Similarly to understanding the question, it is important that you understand what an answer choice actually says before you can decide whether it is the winner or not. Whenever possible, use a dictionary to look up unknown words in an answer choice or ask a teacher for clarification. • Step 2: Make sure to understand what each answer choice actually means before deciding whether it’s the winner or a trash choice.

Step 3: Look for Key Words or Phrases in the Answer Choices • Many times, we complicate multiple choice questions when it would be simpler to focus on key words or phrases in the choices. While not every question will have answer choices with key words or phrases, it is important to look for them if they do happen to appear, as it will help you to determine which is the winner and which choices are trash. • Step 3: Identify any key words or phrases in the answer choices.

Step 3: Look for Key Words or Phrases in the Answer Choices

Step 4: Compare Answer Choices to Determine Which one Sounds Better • Once you have already eliminated one or two trash choices and are left with two or three possible answers, if you are struggling to determine the winner, it may help to compare the answer choices with each other to determine which one is stronger than the other. • If you are comparing two answer choices, you want to look for which one sounds stronger than the other, and then eliminate the one that is weaker in answering the question. • Step 4: Compare answer choices with each other and eliminate the one that does not answer the question as strongly as the other.

Step 4: Compare Answer Choices to Determine Which one Sounds Better

The “All of the Above” Strategy • When you have a question with an “All of the above” choice, don’t make it more challenging than it has to be. • All you are responsible for is determining whether TWO options are correct, because if there at least two choices that are correct, then “All of the above” must therefore be the winner, unless there are certain other factors in play. Which of the following are examples of color? A. B. C. D. E. Red Blue Verde Cyan All of the above

Step 5: When all else fails, make an educated guess after eliminating all possible choices • The only times you should resort to making educated guesses are when you are running out of time and if you have tried everything else to eliminate as many possible answer choices and are still unsure. • Step 5: As a last resort, make an educated guess after eliminating all possible trash choices.