I think most of us have been there. Here are a couple steps I've mapped out for myself, after years of ****ing up questions due to inattention.
- Glance back over the question and see if any information works against your choice. Look for modifiers (all except, does not, etc.) that you may have missed before. Sometimes these change the whole question.
- Glance at the other answer choices. There can be only one right answer, so the other four (or more) should ring false. If you realize that there are other right answers, you may have missed what the question was asking.
Sometimes, of course, the above is not feasible when you're pressed for time, or even impossible if you're out of time and just clicking through. At the very minimum, try to make the last sentence of the question stem (the part that tells you what the hell the question wants to know) the first and last thing you read.
And sometimes they really are that easy. There are first-order questions on the USMLE and COMLEX. If you've ruled out the above, you should feel more confident.
