how many answer choices?

[Ramoray]

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I was wondering how many answer choices there are on step 1 questions? i went to the webiste and they had a couple sample questions off their site and they had like 9 choices?? is that what all the questions are like that many choices? and do they ever have answers like 2 of the above. 3 of the above etc? if somone could fill me on on the format id appreciate it!

 

[bella_dottoressa]

get a life.

 

[coconut lime]

bella, that was a little uncalled for!

to answer your question ramoray, i dont know exactly how many choices there are on the real thing, i'm sure that can vary a lot.....but i know for sure that they dont have "multiple multiple choice"....as in, "a and b", "a and c", "a and b and c"....etc.

 

[EctopicFetus]

Took the exam and I had one question with answer choices A-J. But most of the Qs are A-E or A-D. I didnt have any questions with one of the above two of the above or A and B but not C. etc. All my Qs were starighforward with only one answer.

 

[Stinger86]

Most questions have between four and six answer choices. Some questions (probably about 40 out of 350 on my exam) had 8-10 choices. Here are a few things I noticed: If a question gives you five or six answer choices, then it's just a typical MCQ that lets you either answer the question directly or systematically eliminate wrong answers. If a question gives you 8-10 choices, the question writer doesn't want you to eliminate wrong answers-- they want you to know the answer outright. Most of my 8-10 choice questions had answers that were very similar to one another, so ruling out became a pain. Lastly, if a question has 4 choices (and this one's kinda interesting) it usually has you selecting an answer from a group of related answers such as four zones, four lobes, etc. I had about 4 questions on my test like this and they all followed this format.

 

[-=UberSharky=-]

get a life.

i dont get it. why be mean? was it something he said? 😕

 

[jakstat33]

i dont get it. why be mean? was it something he said? 😕

i think bella's 3 word post was more profound than it might seem at first glance. to worry about how many answer choices there are is empty. i don't care how important this test is in the scheme of your medical career, in the GRAND scheme of things, it is rather meaningless. maybe that was what bella was getting at, i dunno

 

[Ramoray]

How is it irrelevant to know how many answer choices? dont you think that great changes the way you study? If i know there are going to be 9 choices for example, all with close answers that means i have to have a more thorough understanding of the subject because say I remembered Drug x did this and this. And normally it would be enough to rule a question out but if there are 9 drugs listed and 4 of them also do that you better know more facts about the drugs.
ya bella i think you need a life you troll

 

[JohnnyVegas]

I was interested to hear the answer. You gotta think old bella is pretty stupid if she's trying to have a life while studying for the USMLE unless she's one of those that takes a couple years instead of 6 weeks.........

 

[jakstat33]

How is it irrelevant to know how many answer choices? dont you think that great changes the way you study? If i know there are going to be 9 choices for example, all with close answers that means i have to have a more thorough understanding of the subject because say I remembered Drug x did this and this. And normally it would be enough to rule a question out but if there are 9 drugs listed and 4 of them also do that you better know more facts about the drugs.
ya bella i think you need a life you troll

no, i don't think knowing that ~ 10% of the questions will have greater than 5 answer choices will greatly change the the way i prepare for step 1. i would be interested to see how you will change your study habits based on this new revelation!

good luck, no hard feelings i hope

 

[JohnnyVegas]

I think it goes directly to issues of timing just like length of question stems. The point about differentiating between many similar answers is also valid.

Apparently old bella hasn't even taken the MCAT yet.........

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?p=1505347#post1505347

 

[bella_dottoressa]

guys relax i'm a very nice girl, i just like to rile up ramoray 🙂 it's all in good fun, we go way back.

you're right, i haven't even taken the mcat yet! 🙂 nice detective work btw 🙂