So I'll keep this straight forward and simple. Here are 15 points to keep in mind when doing MCQ exams in Med School:
1) Best advice of course is to sleep well the night before your exam, screw those last minute reading, you probably wont get any questions from that last hour of review. You already know the information you need, the only thing left is being able to retrieve it. You wont do that accurately if your brain is tired and hung over. About the insomnia :) I cant help you with that.
2) A good alerting drink on your desk can help, so if your vice is coffee, diet coke or even red bull, bring it with you.
3) Exams are usually randomly selected from a pool of old and new mcqs and if you studied old MCQs well you will notice at least 60% repeats on any exam. Remember whoever prepares you exam is as lazy as the next guy and will get some new questions from different staff but will have to depend on old MCQs for the rest.
Now the good stuff
4) What to choose? The most old advice in the book is to omit at least two answers that are obviously wrong and your left with two others. Think hard and you'll probably get it and if you cant still, remember now your down to a 50/50 chance.
5) Nowadays most respected Universities have programs to randomize the mcq answers so it is spread to 25% per choice "ie if u answer all A you will probably get 25% of your exam right"
but if your unlucky and study in a backward university, there is a big chance that the MCQs are manually done on an old toshiba. In that case, studies have shown that the mind of the person who writes the MCQs usually puts the answer subconsciously in the third choice "C". So if again your up to 50/50 you might feel safer choosing C.
6) Again, on a non-randomized test, "all of the above" or "none of the above" are usually the correct answer if you cant rule out anything else.
7) Two old rules were, "Never is never right and always is always wrong" i.e if you get an answer that say "MI is always preceded by chest pain" you know that's wrong, or "WBC is never low in acute appendicitis" you know that's wrong too. Of course there are exceptions that are know to be Always or Never.
8) The theory that a student should trust their first instinct and stay with their initial answer on a multiple choice test is a myth. Researchers have found that although people often believe that changing answers is bad, it generally results in a higher test score. The data across twenty separate studies indicate that the percentage of "right to wrong" changes is 20.2%, whereas the percentage of "wrong to right" changes is 57.8%, nearly triple. Changing from "right to wrong" may be more painful and memorable, but it is probably a good idea to change an answer after additional reflection indicates that a better choice could be made
from Wiki...Benjamin et al (1984). "Staying with the initial answers on objective tests: Is it a myth?" Teaching of Psychology
9) Rule out the answer choices that are TOO BROAD in Scope. This includes eliminating the longest answer unless all parts of a long answer make sense. Incorrect answers are often long answers and many people will choose this answer because it's filled with lots of important sounding stuff. Generally a broad answer tries to include too much information about too many things. Keep in mind though that if the long answer is a sequence of event "open the abdomen, mobilize the colon then identify the ureter" it is most likely correct.
10) In case of numbers, commonly what quizmakers will do is choose the correct answer, the two whole numbers surrounding that answer and then another number some distance away. Nine out of ten times, if you pick the 'middle' number, you will guess correctly
11) Keep your eye open for obvious mistakes the quizmakers does. Capital letter when all the other answer are small letters, leaving an extra space before the correct answer or if only one of the choices ends with a period "." that's probably your answer.
Common sense
12) Read the questions carefully, don't stop reading the choices even if your sure with a certain answer AND don't miss the all except part. If you get "all are true except" then you can strike it out and just put in your mind, which is false. Or the other stupid double negative "All are false except" do the same , strike it out and keep thinking which is true. In some exams they have a section in the end with 20-30 questions that are like this. My advice is to start your exam with these questions while your mind is still fresh and functioning full capacity. As apposed to doing it in the end when your brain is pooped out.
13) Every 30 questions or so make sure that the number in the answer sheet corresponds to the number of your question. You don't want to waste 15 mins redoing your answers because u skipped a page by mistake.
14) Arrange your time properly, spend half a minute to calculate how long you should spend on an mcq, so you don't go over your time limit.
15) Mark on the side of your answer sheet only the questions that you are not sure of and want to review so you don't waste time finding it late
If you found this Blog useful please retweet or email to your colleagues to share the info
Moe Nassif
1) Best advice of course is to sleep well the night before your exam, screw those last minute reading, you probably wont get any questions from that last hour of review. You already know the information you need, the only thing left is being able to retrieve it. You wont do that accurately if your brain is tired and hung over. About the insomnia :) I cant help you with that.
2) A good alerting drink on your desk can help, so if your vice is coffee, diet coke or even red bull, bring it with you.
3) Exams are usually randomly selected from a pool of old and new mcqs and if you studied old MCQs well you will notice at least 60% repeats on any exam. Remember whoever prepares you exam is as lazy as the next guy and will get some new questions from different staff but will have to depend on old MCQs for the rest.
Now the good stuff
4) What to choose? The most old advice in the book is to omit at least two answers that are obviously wrong and your left with two others. Think hard and you'll probably get it and if you cant still, remember now your down to a 50/50 chance.
5) Nowadays most respected Universities have programs to randomize the mcq answers so it is spread to 25% per choice "ie if u answer all A you will probably get 25% of your exam right"
but if your unlucky and study in a backward university, there is a big chance that the MCQs are manually done on an old toshiba. In that case, studies have shown that the mind of the person who writes the MCQs usually puts the answer subconsciously in the third choice "C". So if again your up to 50/50 you might feel safer choosing C.
6) Again, on a non-randomized test, "all of the above" or "none of the above" are usually the correct answer if you cant rule out anything else.
7) Two old rules were, "Never is never right and always is always wrong" i.e if you get an answer that say "MI is always preceded by chest pain" you know that's wrong, or "WBC is never low in acute appendicitis" you know that's wrong too. Of course there are exceptions that are know to be Always or Never.
8) The theory that a student should trust their first instinct and stay with their initial answer on a multiple choice test is a myth. Researchers have found that although people often believe that changing answers is bad, it generally results in a higher test score. The data across twenty separate studies indicate that the percentage of "right to wrong" changes is 20.2%, whereas the percentage of "wrong to right" changes is 57.8%, nearly triple. Changing from "right to wrong" may be more painful and memorable, but it is probably a good idea to change an answer after additional reflection indicates that a better choice could be made
from Wiki...Benjamin et al (1984). "Staying with the initial answers on objective tests: Is it a myth?" Teaching of Psychology
9) Rule out the answer choices that are TOO BROAD in Scope. This includes eliminating the longest answer unless all parts of a long answer make sense. Incorrect answers are often long answers and many people will choose this answer because it's filled with lots of important sounding stuff. Generally a broad answer tries to include too much information about too many things. Keep in mind though that if the long answer is a sequence of event "open the abdomen, mobilize the colon then identify the ureter" it is most likely correct.
10) In case of numbers, commonly what quizmakers will do is choose the correct answer, the two whole numbers surrounding that answer and then another number some distance away. Nine out of ten times, if you pick the 'middle' number, you will guess correctly
11) Keep your eye open for obvious mistakes the quizmakers does. Capital letter when all the other answer are small letters, leaving an extra space before the correct answer or if only one of the choices ends with a period "." that's probably your answer.
Common sense
12) Read the questions carefully, don't stop reading the choices even if your sure with a certain answer AND don't miss the all except part. If you get "all are true except" then you can strike it out and just put in your mind, which is false. Or the other stupid double negative "All are false except" do the same , strike it out and keep thinking which is true. In some exams they have a section in the end with 20-30 questions that are like this. My advice is to start your exam with these questions while your mind is still fresh and functioning full capacity. As apposed to doing it in the end when your brain is pooped out.
13) Every 30 questions or so make sure that the number in the answer sheet corresponds to the number of your question. You don't want to waste 15 mins redoing your answers because u skipped a page by mistake.
14) Arrange your time properly, spend half a minute to calculate how long you should spend on an mcq, so you don't go over your time limit.
15) Mark on the side of your answer sheet only the questions that you are not sure of and want to review so you don't waste time finding it late
If you found this Blog useful please retweet or email to your colleagues to share the info
Moe Nassif
