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Multiple choice tests are exams where each question has the right answer provided, along with several wrong answers or “distractors.” Test-takers have to pick the right one from among the wrong ones. In some cases, each wrong answer will reduce your grade such that on average, someone guessing at random will get a grade of 0%. This guide will help make sure you don’t have to guess at random, and will show you how to ace multiple choice tests.
Some of the steps below are meant to be executed during class; others, a few days before the exam. Still other steps are meant to be taken the night before and the morning of the exam.
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Introduction
Many classes, especially first year college courses, have too many students for "open" question exams to be practical. In such classes, most exams are comprised of multiple choice questions. These can be quickly graded by a teaching assistant (TA) or electronically. Knowing how instructors write multiple choice questions can give you a leg up in answering questions you're not sure about. However, that’s the last step in the process of getting ready to ace a multiple choice test.The first and most crucial part of preparing for the exam starts many weeks earlier, in class. Proper study habits will give you the best chance of acing your multiple choice exam. Preparing for the exam in the days before it takes place will provide helpful reminders and give you easier access to information you already know. Being well rested and having a nutritious breakfast the morning of the exam both help your concentration.
After answering all the questions you know, there are several clues that can help once you come back to the questions you’re unsure of. These are logical and easy to remember, and in many cases will improve your grade significantly, allowing you to excel in multiple choice tests. Writing plausible wrong answers, or distractors, can be tough. After writing the right answer and two or three wrong ones, many instructors will throw in one or two obviously ridiculous answers. If you rule those out, your odds of guessing right go up from 1 in 5 to 1 in 4, 1 in 3, or even 1 in 2. Sometimes adding in a bit of estimation can even let you to eliminate all the distractors and correctly identify the right answer without knowing it in advance.
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This video demonstrates how you can eliminate several obviously wrong answers to a multiple choice question by using common sense. The example shown is of a question in middle-school geometry, but the principle is sound at all levels.
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Step 1: Start Preparing Early, Very Early
This step is the simplest, if not easiest, of them all. No list of how-to steps will let you ace a well-written exam without knowing the material. The first step is thus to pay attention in class and take good notes. Ask the teacher to explain any part of the material you don’t fully understand. If needed, stop by the teacher’s office after class and ask for further explanations. Most teachers appreciate students who care enough to follow up like this.At home, review your notes, adding any additional information you may have left off in class. Highlight the important parts as a tool to both review the material now, and in preparation for your pre-exam review.
After reviewing your notes, solve problems and answer questions to practice your new knowledge and how to apply it – this is what homework or exercise sets are for.
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Step 2: Get Ready for the Exam
A few days prior to the exam review your notes and especially the parts you highlighted during the course.Many instructors who have taught the same course several times have a file of their old exams. Visit with your instructor ahead of time and ask for copies of these, as they can be a very valuable tool in preparing for exams. If old exams are not available, ask the instructor for a good source of practice questions and spend at least five times the length of the exam working on those.
The night before the exam, prepare your bag for the next day. Make sure you pack all the items you'll need. This may include two pens (in case one runs dry), pencil, eraser, sharpener, ruler, compass, notebook and textbook for open-book exams, etc. Packing the night before will help make sure you remember to take everything, without getting stressed in the morning.
Being tired or hungry during your exam will make it very hard to ace it. Even if you feel you haven't reviewed the material enough to be confident, go to sleep on time the night before the exam. An extra hour or two of review time will be wasted if you're too tired to recall what you read.
On the morning of the exam, have a nutritious breakfast. If necessary and allowed, bring a nutritious snack with you to eat during recess just prior to the exam.
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Step 3: Read Everything Carefully and Follow the Instructions
The test is starting. Take a deep breath and relax. Then, read all instructions on the test form and make sure you understand them and follow them fully.Starting from the top, answer all the questions you know the answers for first, skipping any you’re not sure about. Make sure to read each question and all of its answers fully and carefully so you can apply the next step without falling into any traps. Pay special attention to "game changing" words such as "not", "none", or "no" that flip the meaning of the question or answer.
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Step 4: Start Guessing, but Intelligently Following the Guidelines Below
Returning to the questions you were unsure of, reread each question and its possible answers. Check for consistency of language between the question and the answers. If the question seeks an answer which should be plural and one or more of the answers are singular, you can rule those out. If the answer looks for a range of values and one or more answers provide a single value, those answers are very likely to be wrong. If there’s a mismatch of tenses with the question written in future tense and an answer in past tense, again, that’s not likely to be the right answer.Look for paired answers. An easy way for an instructor to make up a wrong answer is to write the opposite of the right answer, or else to write the same answer with just one or two words or numbers changed. If only two answers are paired like that, one of those is likely to be the right answer. If there are two pairs and a fifth “odd man out” answer, you can most likely rule out that unpaired answer.
Many instructors throw in one answer that addresses the others. One example is “None of the above.” That answer is rarely the right answer, because that means the instructor has purposely asked a question with no right answer given. Writing the right answer is the easiest thing for the instructor, so it’s unlikely to have been left out.
If the right answer has several aspects, an instructor may write correct but incomplete answers as distractors, adding an "All of the above" or "B and D" etc. as the correct answer. If you’re not careful you may see B is correct and mark it, failing to realize that so are A, C, D and/or E. If more than one answer seems at least partially correct, and there is a separate answer that includes the partially correct ones, mark that answer. Make sure however that none of the answers included in it is wrong.
Despite all the preparations, and all the intelligent guessing techniques above, there will almost always remain at least one question that completely stumps you. If all else fails and you have no reasonable way to eliminate any of the answers, you may gain a slight advantage by ignoring the first and last answers. Instructors who don’t completely randomize the position of right answers will sometimes try to “hide” them between the distractors, putting fewer right answers in the first or last position.
