Strategies for Writing Multiple Choice Tests
by Stephanie Hevenor
Psychology Department
Nipissing University
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Study the way you will be tested, that is, by doing multiple-choice questions.
Use the textbook website, and review each quiz and midterm as they are
returned to you. Review the questions you get incorrect. This will focus your
studying in the areas you are weakest. If you don’t understand the material
you are studying, email an instructor, as s/he may be able to clarify it for you.
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Read the questions carefully, watching for keywords like “not” and other
tricky wording.
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When possible, determine an answer before looking at the alternatives
provided. Cover the choices, then write your answer in the margin. Select
the option that comes closes to your intial thoughts.
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Eliminate choices as best you can; if you can get it down to 2 options, you
have a 50/50 shot at getting it right.
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If you aren’t sure of an answer, skip the question—return to it later. When
in doubt, it is often wise to change your initial answer, but only if you have a
reason for that doubt. If you are simply guessing, don’t bother changing it –
go with your gut in that case.
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Get a good night’s sleep the night before the test, and eat something (snack
or meal, as appropriate). If you are fatigued or hungry, you won’t be able to
focus. Loss of concetration leads to careless mistakes. You can have the
knowledge of the world, but if you can’t concentrate, you’ll never be able to
put that information to use; you won’t be able to access it.
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Take your time, and do what you need to do to relax during the test. If you
get anxious, put the pencil down, close your eyees, and breathe, slowly and
deeply, for a minute or two. Calm your mind. You have plenty of time on
these tests, so don’t panic. Anxiety interferes with concentraton as much as
fatigue, so it is important that you employ strategies that will reduce your
anxiety during the test.
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Other Suggestions (from the Grammar Granny):
The following suggestions are taken from a booklet titled “Multiple-Choice Tests:
How to Choose Strategies that Work” written by Martin Boyne for the Academic
Skills Centre at Trent University. I have a few of these booklets in my office if any
students would like to read them.
If you know you will be presented with multiple-choice tests in your course, please
consider the following:
PREPARATION
You probably have already developed several exam strategies for studying your
exams up to now. Planning in advance in order to avoid cramming, making
checklists, studying with friends, and creating self-tests may be some of your
approaches.
Boyne suggests that you approach multiple-choice tests a little beyond what you
normally do. He suggests FLEXIBLE STUDYING (p.3). By this he means
“adapting your approach to prepare you for anything that might come along” (p.3).
“As with all studying, the most crucial principle is to START EARLY” (p.4). You
must “incorporate test preparation into your weekly and daily schedule from the
start of the course.” If you do so, you will gain better time management, better
understanding of concepts, better overall comprehension, earlier identification of
problems, and greater flexibility.
Three basic types of multiple- choice questions:
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Factual—a question based on facts acquired through lectures and texts
Conceptual --- a question that requires you to think about and reflect on
what you have learned
Applied – a question that uses an unfamiliar context to test your knowledge
of familiar concepts
Your multiple-choice test could be testing one or all of these types of questions.
In other words, you may be asked for the best definition of a concept, but you may
also need to understand the concept from a number of angles (p.5):
What does the concept mean, signify or represent?
How can I define the concept in a range of different ways?
What is the concept most like? Most unlike?
How can the concept be categorized?
Where does the concept fit in the course? In the field/ what do scholars say about
the concept/
In what context can the concept be applied?
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Example:
Let’s say you are taking an introductory psychology course and you are studying
the concept of ________________________.
You begin by defining it as
________________________________________________________________________
Now you need to broaden the definition into a web of related ideas, exploring the
concept from a number of perspectives. So you start to explore the connection
between __________________ and _____________________. You investigate
________________________ through the notions of
___________________________________________________________________.
Notice how, already, your depth and breadth of understanding are much greater
than before.
Deeper analysis of the concept leads you to examine the leading figures in
___________: ________________________________________________________.
As you do so, you gain a better understanding of those scholars and their
contributions to the topic and to the field in general. Your flexible appraoch to
studying forces you to see the bigger picture in order to apply the concept more
broadly and practically. Where does ________________ fit chronologically in
psychological theory? Where does it fit thematically? What contemporary
psychological issues are most concerned with _____________ ideas? In general, how
does it relate to the course and to the discipline as a whole?
“You are, in essence, preparing yourself to provide whatever answer the multiplechoice question demands of you, not just the single, rigid answer that a rote
memorization approach to studying might creaste. Your knowledge of the material
is thus framed in a number of ways, something that not only helps you to do well on
the test—particularly the more challenging conceptual and applied questions—but
also helps you to deepen and enrich your understanding of the course material in
general. If you are in a discipline where each successive course builds on knowledge
acquired in previous courses…flexible studying done on a regular basis can be
invaluable” (p.7).
When studying for multiple-choice tests, you m ust be able to analyze, synthesis, and
consolidate. “Since there is no single approach to analysis, synthesis or cosolidation,
you must b e flexible, adapting your technique each time you study. The end result
is a more complete picture of your topic, one that enables you to ‘think on your feet’
instead of providing a stock answer to a question” (p.7).
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Some Other Practical Study Suggestions
1.
Pay attention to your learning style. Think carefully about when to study (Do you
study best in the morning or at night? ), where (Do you need absolute quiet or
some background noise?) and how (How long can you stay alert and focused
while studying?) Depending on the material and your own style, you may need to
read, write, speak, listen, and (always, of course!) think.
2.
Give your studying a context. “Context often involves categorization or
classification. There are many ways of classifying academic material, many of
them connected to the discipline itself” (p.9) For example, groupings may be
theoretical, chronological, thematic, specific-to-general, or general-to-specific.
3.
Find sample multiple-choice questions in order to rehearse. Here at Nipissing, we
can access old tests through the library home page. (From our main webpage, go
to Library, click on “internet links,” then on “Nipissing Links” where you will
find “Past Exams”) If old tests for your course are not on line, or if you simply
want more practice, doublecheck to see if your textbook has practice tests or cdroms or websites where you can get banks of test questions. Does your professor
have his/her own website where they post exercises? You and a friend could also
create multiple-choice questions which you give to each other as practice.k
4.
Join a study group or get one going yourself. Make sure that the members are
motivated and sincere, and be careful the group does not morph into a gripe group
or a social session where nothing productive gets done.
TAKING THE TEST
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Give yourself a few minutes to prepare mentally before you look at the test.. Jot
down any last minute thoughts, formulas, definitiions, etc. that you might forget
once you get started.
Read the instructions crefully; don’t miss important directions and rules.
Establish checkpoints. Calculate approximately where you should be in the test at
a particular time point.
Cover the answers (Stephanie suggested this above). Try to come up with your
own answer first.
Reveal the answers one by one (if you look at all the possible answers at once, the
answer may not be worded in exactly the same way as the one you studied and
you may panic.
Assess the correctness of each response. Eliminate the distractor or decoy (a
wrong and even silly answer). When a listed response matches the answer you
came up with, don’t stop there. Continue to reveal the answers to be sure that
your choice is the best choice.
When you still cannot decide which answer is correct (often you are left with 2
possible ones), read the question and each answer again carefully. If you still feel
stuck, leave the answer blank and move on. When you return, you may feel
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refreshed and may have thought of something new in the meantime. “If all else
fails, guess” (p.15) unless, of coruse, there are penalties for wrong answers.
STUMBLING BLOCKS – WORDS TO WATCH OUT FOR
1.
A single word can make all the difference between a right and wrong answer.
Here are some words which change the meaning of the words around them, so
watch out for them.
Relative terms: often, seldom, perhaps, sometimes, generally, may, tend, usually.
Abolute terms: always, never, only, necessary, must.
The question, “Which of these staements is generally true of……………? Is very
different from “Which of these statemetns is always true of ………..?”
2.
Dealing with negatives can confuse, especially when double negatives are
involved. For example, a questions like “Which of the following is never false?”
creates confusion because “false” means “not true” so the question is really
“Which of the following is never not true?” If you have a case like this, change
“never false” to “always true,” which makes the concept easier for you.
3.
Some choices are worded similarly. Watch in particular for pairs of similarly
worded answers accompanied by two differently worded answers. There is a
good chance that one of the similarly worded answers is correct.
Example: In which area can you find the city of North Bay?
(a) Northern Ontario (b) Southern Ontario (c) Saskatchewan (d) Nunavit
MYTHS ABOUT MULTIPLE-CHOICE TESTS
1.
“It may seem so, but it’s not true. In fact, as with all exams, the professor is
trying to get the best out of you based on what he or she feels (from experience)
you should be able to achieve if you have been working steadily on understanding
the material” (p.28).
2.
Don’t change your answers. Don’t change them randomly because you have
panicked, but if you have had a chance to think about the question more, you may
be more confident than you were when you first looked at it, so, of course, you
should change your answer to the one you feel most sure about.
3.
If in doubt, choose ( c )
There is no reason to think that ( c ) is better than another.
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4.
Watch for patterns in the answers. Just because you have answered (b) five times
in a row, there is no reason why (b) cannot be correct again. Tests are often
generated by a computer from an electronic test bank, and the computer will not
“think” about patterns.
5.
Don’t fill in your answer sheet until the end. This is a mistake. It is too easy to
be caught short time-wise. In additiion, you could transpose the answers
incorrectly, especially at the end of the test when you might be tired.
LEARNING FROM MULTIPLE-CHOICE TESTS
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After receiving your test back, you might want to reflect on, not just your results,
but also on your studying process. Ask yourself these questions:
Did I plan my study time well throughout the course and during the exam period?
Did I implement flexible, cumulative studying throughout the course?
Did I feel adequately prepared on the day of the test?
Was anything about the exam itself overwhelmingn or unanticipated?
What would I do differently next time, and how can I put those plans into action?
(page 32)
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Some exams are secured so they can be used again. If you are not given your exam back,
ask to see your exam in your professor’s office. Seek his/her advice for improving next
time
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