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Tape 6- Objective Exams
Test Anxiety
Cassette Number Six. Taking the Objective Examination…
Now let us move to the day of the examination. You are leaving your room; be
sure that you have adequate equipment; pencil, pen, paper, book (if it's an open
book,) and especially a watch correctly set. Set out so that you will arrive at the
examination room three or four minutes before the examination begins, so that
you will be settled, and have your possessions in order when the instructor hands
out the test. It's poor strategy to enter a test room hurried and embarrassed
because you are late. The mild emotional upset might build into panic rapidly.
On the other hand, don't arrive in class so early that you're able to stand around
in the hall chatting with other students, particularly, if they are nervous, panic, as I
have said, is contagious. There is another reason for not engaging in conversation
just before the test, someone is likely to ask you a question. If you answer it
correctly, you are very likely to be unlikely to answer it in an upcoming test. You
are at this moment organized to get hundreds of answers to the many possible
questions asked of you, and then to forget that answer, and immediately go onto
the next task. So to prevent your friends from damaging you, tell them that you
don't know the answer. This will save the answer for you, and will raise his
morale immeasurably. Besides, there's strong reason to believe that such
information that you give him or her now, will simply eliminate the information
that he or she had already.
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Let us first consider the essay examination in contrast to the objective examination. I've already
touched upon the subject. The essay examination is subjective; that is, it allows more room for
personal opinion. It generally consists of a brief list of directions, two or three sets to an hour, which
you obey by writing a well-organized, clear, unified, precise essay, that may range anywhere from a
paragraph to several pages, depending on the value that the instructor places upon the questions. Such
an examination measures your ability to argue, and expresses your thoughts, as well as your knowledge
of the subject. Your instructor probably won't be able to get as full a coverage of the different major
topics of the course, as he or she could in a 100-question objective test. So he or she might more
likely be focused thoroughly on a few likely subjects, and ask for a rather thorough detail on them.
Since you don't know what they will be, and must work up all the important subjects in detail, so the
argument often goes. However, consciously or unconsciously in lectures, he or she is likely to give
strong hints on the three or four topics he or she considers most important. Still, students normally
spend more time studying for the essay test than they do for the objective test, because they must
recall rather than recognize the material of the text and the test. And thus, must learn to a deeper
level as they pursue the central ideas and organizations of the course.
To turn to the objective test, some of these also demand recall rather than recognition; those which
demand that you fill in blanks, completion problems, or questions which have a single correct answer.
The instructor generally has a specific answer in mind. So when answering these; try for the exact key
phrase or technical term, however, if it is impossible, put in an approximately one, you may get credit.
The multiple choice, true/false, and set-matching problems demand simply that you recognize the
correct answer in a group of incorrect answers. The multiple choice is probably the most common,
for if well-constructed they can demand as much thought as an essay question. Indeed, as I have said
before, it is a mistake to think that you must know only a small detail. You should study for the main
ideas and overall organization, and then if you don't know the exact answer you will have a good
chance of reconstructing the needed details by resorting to the first premises.
Although I will deal with the essay test and the objective test separately, I would like to continue to
consider them together on one more subject; scheduling; for sometimes you will find them mixed on
your test sheet. First, let us consider the scheduling of an essay examination. When you enter class
the first thing that you'll want to do is allot the proper time for answering each question. Five partially
answered questions will generally get more credit than three fully answered ones. Let us say that you
have an hour. Actually, that is 50 minutes, the normal college class period. First, deduct 10 minutes for
survey and organization at the beginning of the test. Then deduct 5 minutes for proof reading at the
end of the test. You have 35 minutes left. Now count the number of essay problems. There are five.
Now divide the number of problems into the writing time. In this case, 5 into 35 and you have a result
of 7 minutes to spend on each question. Spend no more than that the first time through. If it should
happen that you spend less time on some questions which were particularly easy, use the surplus time
on the harder questions. But again, don't spend that surplus time until after you have spent at most 7
minutes on each problem. If you don't finish a problem in 7 minutes, stop and go on, leaving space for
writing more if you should have some surplus time.
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Time allotments differ for objective tests. Let us say that you have 50 minutes and 50 multiple choice
question, matching or completion questions. Spend a minute on each one. True/false take much less
time than the other three. Normally, you will have twice as many true/false as any other. So in this
50-minute period you would have 100 upon which you should spend a half a minute each. Actually, if
you were to be counting off half-minutes or minutes, you would need a stop watch and would be
wasting a great deal of time. Just check from time to time. Let us say that you have finished 20 out of
50 multiple choice. Look at your watch. 25 minutes have passed. You are dragging about 5 minutes
behind time. Pick up the pace. You have 100 true false to do in 50 minutes, and you've done 30.
Look at your watch. 15 minutes have passed. You're on time. Keep up the same pace. Your greatest
difficulty in scheduling will come when you have mixed-objective essay problems. Let us say that you
had an examination with three blocks of questions, all given equal credit; a block of true/false, a block
of multiple choice, a block of essay questions. As usual, give about twice the time to the multiple
choices that you would to the true/false. A minute to a problem as opposed as a half-minute to a
problem. But with the essay, allot a little more time than to any. It's very difficult to say how much.
The more likely you are to do well on the essay problem, the more time you should allot. But as a
rule of thumb, I can suggest about a quarter as much as on a multiple choice. To summarize then,
spend twice as much on a multiple choice problem as you would a true/false problem, and spend a
quarter more time on that on an essay problem.
So much for scheduling, let us now turn to the essay test. The most important thing that you will see
in an essay test is the verb that instructs you what to do. You must know these well. Turn to figure
40, a three-page list of each verb. As you read this list remember you are dealing with abstractions,
and that that means these words are subject to various interpretations. Some that I have not put
under one heading might go under another, for instance. Some words I have listed as having several
possible meanings. As I write at the end of the list the context of the instructions will make them
more specific. When in doubt, ask your instructor precisely what he means. The four-part division is
usuful for you to hold centrally in mind. Remember, One, some problems stress main ideas. Two,
some stress types of detail or certain subordinate ideas. Three, some stress your opinion. And four,
some ask for everything. The first thing that you should do is determine which category your question
falls under. Then narrow it further. By the way, some problems ask you to do more than one
intellectual task. Be alert to the situation, for often students lose points by only doing part of an essay
problem.
Now let us go through the actual techniques that you should perform in taking an essay test. You
receive the test from the instructor. Be calm. The first sight of the paper is always a bit upsetting.
For no matter how well prepared you are, you will find an unexpected problem, a blank spot in your
education. It happens to all of us, so don't panic. Now survey the test as you would a textbook. First,
check out the number of problems and the points allotted to each so that you can set up a schedule.
After the schedule, read all of the questions to get the shape of the test, especially to see if there is any
overlapping. There often is overlapping on a well-constructed test aiming to make you support one
central idea by answering three or four problems.
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If you're unaware of the overlap, you may find in question two you may have to recopy material you
wrote in question one. When you read these questions in your first survey, set up a scratch sheet on
which you will jot, in speed-hand, the answers so that you don't forget them. Remember what
happens when an answer is triggered, you're likely to forget it. Also use the scratch sheet for outlining
answers. You will find this scratch sheet a very useful accessory. You may even hand it in if you didn't
finish the test, it may be worth some extra credit. Now begin to answer. Answer the essay ones first.
If you begin with a hard one, you're likely to panic. Also, you may be able to generalize from the easier
problems to the harder ones. Third, while you are working on the essay problems, answers to the
hard problems will pop into your head if you have surveyed and have the hard problems in mind. If
such answers come again, be sure to pause to jot them down on the scratch sheet, or you're likely to
forget. Fourth, some initial success will reduce the level of your anxiety. Now organize your answer
on the scratch sheet. List down all relevant supporting details, group like with like. Provide
subheadings for these groups. Construct a thesis which unites the subheadings. Now write the essay.
Open with the thesis statement and a statement or strong suggestion of your organization. Then
support the thesis statement. Making a paragraph whenever you introduce a subheading. In these
paragraphs begin with the idea of the subheading, then support. Give relationships, suggest
implications, establish chronological order, if needed. Provide specific details; names, dates, examples.
Make your transitions clear. Make liberal use of numbers, one, two, three, to show sequence items.
Sometimes a graph, sketch, diagram, table will be good. Even if it's done roughly. Use the course's
technical vocabulary. Always make answers as specific as possible, preferably using original detail,
illustrations, and examples to show your mastery of the subject. Don't pad. Don't make excuses for
your ignorance. Write legibly. Common errors in essay examinations are, first, to remain on the
general level. Be sure to nail the subject down with enough concrete details. Second, vice versa.
Sticking to concrete detail only and never providing a thesis that goes into the why that is behind all
the detail. Third, lack of organization. Especially common is the free association answer, in which the
student just scribbles from likeness to likeness. Fourth, misinterpreting the question. Fifth, spending
too much time on questions with low value. Next, writing illegibly. Finally, being unnecessarily specific.
If you are unsure, don't pin yourself down, if unavoidable. You have finished answering the questions.
Now you should have 5 minutes left for each hour of writing. During this time you must proof read,
even if you haven't finished some of the problems. Check especially for omitted material. Rapid,
pressured writing often results in omitting words, parts of words, phrases, even whole sections. For
the mind races past the handwriting speed, and sometimes you accidently jump forward to write down
what you are presently thinking of. Check for incorrect or unclear statements. Check for mistakes in
grammar, spelling, et cetera. An alternative way of using the proof read time is to proof read before
you use any surplus time that you may have gained on earlier problems. Then you can proof read also
for answers that are too short or answers which omit coverage that the problem requires. Then use
your surplus time to patch up these difficulties.
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That's it on the essay examination. To conclude, I might say that your instructor will probably be less
interested in your parroting his lectures than he will be in a valid answer, whether or not he disagrees
with its conclusions. If you present the facts and logically relate them and persuasively present them,
he should be satisfied. He might even be pleased. This ends Cassette Number Six. It also concludes
the course on Counseling Five.