By Tips for Test Day
1. Take. It. Slow. “Read the question carefully. Students tend to get anxious and read fast and skip over keywords like ‘not’ and ‘except’ and ‘first.’” Test writers often throw these keywords into the question to make a student think more critically about the information, and they are very easy to overlook if you read too fast.
2. Try not to look ahead. Billings recommends reading the question first, then thinking of the answer before you read the answers. Pick the answer that most closely matches what you were thinking about. It’s easy to get distracted by the other choices and that can cause you more confusion. If you know what the answer is before you look at your options, you are less likely to be led astray. Billings confides, “The key to writing good questions is to write four answers that are probable with only one right.”
3. Don’t read into the question. Avoid basing an answer on exceptions. Base your answer on evidence or theory that you know. Only answer the question based on data that is presented, not on what you assume or what might happen if certain other criteria were in play. Just answer the question that the writer wrote.
Next: How to Handle Multiple Choice Questions →
