Go with your gut?

[cubsrule4e]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Ive been doing questions, questions, questions for about 2 weeks now and every so often ill come across one containing material that i havent reviewed, but that ive seen a few times over the course of my first 2 years. When i get to the answers there is usually an immediate gut feeling toward an answer but no sound basis for that selection. Then i'll look at other answers and usually be able to come up with another one that i think could be right based on logical thinking and what i actually do know. But in the end, the gut instinct answer is the right one id say 75% of the time. Seeing as how the odds favor me (and all those high school/college/med school professors do tell you to go with your first instinct) is it worth it on the real exam to make that "knee jerk" choice and just move on instead of wasting time thinking about 2 answers im really just not sure about, and then potentially even switching my answer to the wrong one? I guess you could say common sense tells you that if youre not sure on two answers, go with the one you were drawn to first, but I guess I just have a problem picking an answer and having absolutely no rationale for it against another answer that i do have a little information about. Any strategy on this from anyone who has already taken their test?

 

[Arctic Char]

you may have to consult stephen colbert

(sorry, i couldn't resist)

good luck. i'd stick with what the data says . . . 75% is a better approach than 25%

 

[ginger60]

I can tell you that there were quite a few questions on my exam that I couldn't answer confidently but did experience a gut feeling on, went back and spent way too much time debating other answer chioces, changed my answer to the non-gut feeling one, and realized after the test that the gut feeling answer was correct. I was able to think of at least 15 of these questions after the test. However, there were also a few questions that I marked and went back to and remembered a very important piece of information that caused me to change from another answer choice (the gut feeling one) to the correct one. The lesson to learn from this is that you can convince yourself that any answer choice is right, so if your gut feeling usually does not fail you then go with it. However, if you have nothing more than a gut feeling for an answer and remember new evidence pointing to a different answer, then you definitely should change your answer. I think Kaplan also advises going with your first guess unless you have a compelling reason not to.

 

[cubsrule4e]

I can tell you that there were quite a few questions on my exam that I couldn't answer confidently but did experience a gut feeling on, went back and spent way too much time debating other answer chioces, changed my answer to the non-gut feeling one, and realized after the test that the gut feeling answer was correct. I was able to think of at least 15 of these questions after the test. However, there were also a few questions that I marked and went back to and remembered a very important piece of information that caused me to change from another answer choice (the gut feeling one) to the correct one. The lesson to learn from this is that you can convince yourself that any answer choice is right, so if your gut feeling usually does not fail you then go with it. However, if you have nothing more than a gut feeling for an answer and remember new evidence pointing to a different answer, then you definitely should change your answer. I think Kaplan also advises going with your first guess unless you have a compelling reason not to.

Right...so if my first instinct will get me 11 out of those 15 questions, are the remaining 4 even significant enough to worry about, especially since i wouldnt know which 11 i was right on?...in that case i would be spending time on all 15, but potentially i would be changing my answer from correct to incorrect more often than i would the opposite. But like you said, if i remember or find another piece of information that leads me toward another answer i would definitely go back and spend the time on it. I guess simply stated, its probably worth it to take 11 to miss 4. Im not shooting for a 260+ or anything

 

[ginger60]

yeah, you've got it. You'll feel better if you go with your gut instead of agonizing over other answers like I did (trust me). Plus, remember that you actually can miss those 4/15 questions and still get 260+ if you answer the other questions that you know correctly--I know I missed at least 15 cuz I didn't trust my gut, and I worried myself sick about it afterwards but I still scored great.

 

[UTKB]

I have trouble with this too. According to both my Kaplan and UW qbank stats, I change my answer to a correct one about 2X as often as correct to incorrect. So....I have trouble.