A test taking skill.

[GiTsticker]

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Just thought I would share this technique I use to answer questions I know absolutely nothing about. Most people will tell you to go with your gut in this case but there is a much better way! It involves narrowing down the answer choices by simply eliminating those that are dissimilar from the rest. First let me pose this question: In a question that has 4 similar answers and one blatantly dissimilar answer, how often is the dissimilar one correct? Very rarely. It is the test-writer's mission to make you widdle down incorrect answers due to things you have learned in the subject, but the result is a familiar pattern that if followed, can usually result in a 50/50 chance of correctly answering a question that you know nothing about.

Using the same example as above: Let's say you eliminate the answer that is dissimilar and have 4 answer choices left. One of those will usually have a trait that the other three don't or vice versa. Using the same logic as above, eliminate that choice, and so on and so forth. The end result will be two answer choices that are VERY similar but differ in just one quality. One of those is most likely (in my experience) the answer. NOW go with your gut! Hope this helps someone guess correctly on their DAT. To some it will be common sense, but I know some very smart people who just aren't great test takers and it is skills like these that make the difference.

 

[nze82]

Just thought I would share this technique I use to answer questions I know absolutely nothing about. Most people will tell you to go with your gut in this case but there is a much better way! It involves narrowing down the answer choices by simply eliminating those that are dissimilar from the rest. First let me pose this question: In a question that has 4 similar answers and one blatantly dissimilar answer, how often is the dissimilar one correct? Very rarely. It is the test-writer's mission to make you widdle down incorrect answers due to things you have learned in the subject, but the result is a familiar pattern that if followed, can usually result in a 50/50 chance of correctly answering a question that you know nothing about.

Using the same example as above: Let's say you eliminate the answer that is dissimilar and have 4 answer choices left. One of those will usually have a trait that the other three don't or vice versa. Using the same logic as above, eliminate that choice, and so on and so forth. The end result will be two answer choices that are VERY similar but differ in just one quality. One of those is most likely (in my experience) the answer. NOW go with your gut! Hope this helps someone guess correctly on their DAT. To some it will be common sense, but I know some very smart people who just aren't great test takers and it is skills like these that make the difference.

Seems like Schizophrenia is finally being replaced with some logic!!

 

[failedmagician]

Thank you for your advice. My question is, won't you have to know something about the answers to narrow down which is least likely?

Like:

a. Cat
b. Dog
c. cheese

You need to know that cheese is not an animal. This is easy, but on the DAT..there might be answers like names of enzymes that I have never heard of. What would you do in that case?


Also, on the angles portion of PAT, should I use a similar tactic? I suck at angles!

So if you have

a. 1,2,3,4
b. 1,3,2,4
c. 3,1,2,4
d. 1,2,4,3

Should I assume that 1 is the smallest and 4 is the largest because they are the most similar? (IF I'm already planning on guessing). Basically, I'm wrong a lot about angles and I don't have a strategy lol.

 

[GiTsticker]

...won't you have to know something about the answers to narrow down which is least likely?

No you don't. But the answers do have to share some qualities.

...on the DAT..there might be answers like names of enzymes that I have never heard of. What would you do in that case?

For example:
a) m-chlorobenzylpropanamide
b) N-[3-chlorophenyl]propanamide
c) 3-chlorobenzamide
d) N-[3-chlorobenzyl]propanamide
e) 1-chloro-3-butanamide

In this case, it is hard to pull out answers one at a time, but notice that there are two answers that only differ by one quality (b and d). Chances are it is one of those. (It's b)

Also, on the angles portion of PAT, should I use a similar tactic? I suck at angles!

So if you have

a. 1,2,3,4
b. 1,3,2,4
c. 3,1,2,4
d. 1,2,4,3

Should I assume that 1 is the smallest and 4 is the largest because they are the most similar? (IF I'm already planning on guessing). Basically, I'm wrong a lot about angles and I don't have a strategy lol.

What I do in this situation is compare 4 and 3 to see what's the biggest. If I can't decide by looking, then I give 4 the benefit of the doubt. Same with 1 and 3 for the smallest.

 

[TooQuickSlick]

Sometimes on CDP the one that isn't similar is the correct answer.

 

[GiTsticker]

First of all, CDP isn't the DAT. But I will admit that test-writers do sometimes acknowledge that they write answer choices in patterns and will try to trick the clever test-taker by making the dissimilar answer the correct one. If you were to guess the answer using the technique I described, you would get it wrong. This usually (in my experience) isn't the case, however.

 

[keliao]

IMO GiTskicer's strategies works better facts questions like on Biol,Gchem, orgo, and reading. Not on math nor PAT.

 

[GiTsticker]

IMO GiTskicer's strategies works better facts questions like on Biol,Gchem, orgo, and reading. Not on math nor PAT.

ACTUALLY Let's say you're doing keyholes. You've got 4 answers that look similar and one that is way different. If you are so inclined to guess (no time left) I would advise against choosing that one.

In fact if you see 2 that are very similar with just one distinct difference, look at those 2 first because chances are, one of them is the correct answer and the other is a 'trick' wrong answer. This way, you don't even have to be guessing to use the strategy. You will usually get to the correct answer faster by avoiding the obviously wrong answers, thus saving time in the end to go over marked questions.

On math, same deal if not more pertinent than the other sections as most people WILL have to guess because the section is so time intensive. If you've got 1 minute left and 10 questions to guess on, I recommend choosing one of the 2 answers that look the most alike. It's gotta be better than picking all C's!

 

[orangutan777]

thanks for the advice! i'll surely put it to good use this coming thursday :x

 

[Mohrisbetr]

On math, same deal if not more pertinent than the other sections as most people WILL have to guess because the section is so time intensive. If you've got 1 minute left and 10 questions to guess on, I recommend choosing one of the 2 answers that look the most alike. It's gotta be better than picking all C's!

I agree with this. I think you would have a better chance choosing one of the similiar answers than straight Cs. out of 10, straight Cs probably get you 3 right but picking one of the most similar probably gets you 4, maybe even 5. It's a small difference but it could be the difference between 20 and 19.

 

[youknowthedrill]

Great tip! Thanks