Taking Multiple Choice Tests

Many students think of multiple choice exams as simply a matter of recognising true statements. However, these exams require students to do much more than just recognising textbook material.

Multiple choice questions require you to make distinctions between correct and almost correct statements. This distinction makes use of higher order thinking skills like synthesis, analysis, and application, and require the student to read both the question and the choices carefully.

Multiple-choice questions consist of three parts:

Your challenge is to identify the correct or the most-correct answer from among the alternatives.

Some students are more test-wise than others are when it comes to multiple choice tests. Test-wiseness is the ability to use the characteristics and format of a test to improve test-taking performance.

Multiple choice questions often include clues that may help you locate the correct answer. You can improve your performance on these tests by following some simple suggestions.

Studying for the Exam

  1. Take a study skills workshop to learn how to recognise various levels of learning, learning strategies and how to learn, remember and think better.
  2. Practise making and answering multiple choice questions of various levels.
  3. Study old exams and look at the level or type of thinking that is required, and the degree of difference between correct and incorrect choices.
  4. When studying look for groups of facts or ideas that are similar in meaning. Pay attention to the differences among the facts and ideas within each group.

Writing multiple choice exams

  1. Read all of the instructions at the top of the exam page first. Make sure that you follow the instructions while writing the test.
  2. Some students read the all the exam questions first, answer the ones that they are sure of, and mark the ones that appear more difficult so they can remember to answer those later. This allows them to manage their time more effectively.
  3. When reading the stem (question):
    • read the stem carefully;
    • circle the key words or phrases;
    • pay attention to negative or qualifying words like never, always, some, many or few. These can affect the answer
    • cover the choices, and try to answer the question.
  4. When looking at the alternatives (choices):
    • uncover one alternative at a time
    • read the stem followed by the alternative to see if it sounds right; or if the alternative makes grammatical sense with the stem;
    • assign a yes, no or maybe to each alternative. If you end up with only one yes response, this is probably the correct answer.
  5. If you don’t end up with a clearly correct choice, use the process of elimination. :
    • Which choice seems most correct?
    • Look at negatives and qualifiers to see if they have affected the meaning of the alternative.
    • Consider "all of the above" and "none of the above." to see if all of them or none of them apply totally.
    • Make sure that a statement applies to the question since it can be true, but not be relevant to the question at hand.
    • If you are still unsure, move on and come back to the question later. You may find helpful clues in another question.
  6. If you still have unanswered questions when you’re finished, take a guess at the answers unless marks are deducted for wrong answers.
  7. Leave time at the end of the exam to check over your work. Make sure that you haven’t missed any questions.
  8. Don’t look for patterns in your answer. Just because you answered b) then c) in the last two questions does not mean that the next answer will be d).
  9. Research has shown that changing your answer once you’ve answered it is neither good nor bad. If you think you have made a mistake, change the answer to the more correct response.