How to ace multiple choice exams?

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Turkishking

Turkishking

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I've been taking practice quizzes for each evolutionary biology lecture. I've been scoring around a 9/11 on each one which is an 82. My professor says this is way above average. But there is always one person who gets a 100% on each exam. How do I be that person? What do I do? What am I doing wrong?

I think the average for the first exam is around a 50.
 
For the ones you are getting wrong, do they revolve around the same topic? Or are they similar question structure? As in do they make you calculate something or think a lot more than the other questions?
 
boogiecousins94 said:
For the ones you are getting wrong, do they revolve around the same topic? Or are they similar question structure? As in do they make you calculate something or think a lot more than the other questions?
Click to expand...
It's typically one concept combined with another concept with unusual wording and answer choices
 
It's either that I get tunnel vision and select only one of the correct answers, but the right answer is like E: Both A and C
 
Turkishking said:
It's either that I get tunnel vision and select only one of the correct answers, but the right answer is like E: Both A and C
Click to expand...

Damn I hate those, the biochem course I took had exams that were only 30 questions, but probably half of them had had 1) A and C 2) B and C or 3) none of the above all on the same question and it makes you overthink easily.

If the course average is like 50 and your doing way above average, I wouldn't worry about it too much for this course unless they don't curve it etc. Just because it may be trick questions and its just hard to always get them right. When you prof told you the average and how your doing better did they give you any advice for doing even better?
 
boogiecousins94 said:
Damn I hate those, the biochem course I took had exams that were only 30 questions, but probably half of them had had 1) A and C 2) B and C or 3) none of the above all on the same question and it makes you overthink easily.

If the course average is like 50 and your doing way above average, I wouldn't worry about it too much for this course unless they don't curve it etc. Just because it may be trick questions and its just hard to always get them right. When you prof told you the average and how your doing better did they give you any advice for doing even better?
Click to expand...
She just said come to office hours and the class is curved
 
Turkishking said:
I've been taking practice quizzes for each evolutionary biology lecture. I've been scoring around a 9/11 on each one which is an 82. My professor says this is way above average. But there is always one person who gets a 100% on each exam. How do I be that person? What do I do? What am I doing wrong?

I think the average for the first exam is around a 50.
Click to expand...
How about actually mastering the material?
 
My favorite ways to study for classes that require combining concepts rather than just mastering each concept separately:

1) Make your own practice questions. Preferably get a study partner to do the same. Write in the same question style as the teacher. Try and make multiple-concept questions.
2) Large-concept learning. I pick a concept and (without looking at my notes) write everything I can remember about it in paragraph form. Then I go back and make corrections/additions in the margins. You might prefer concept maps--pick a starting place and connect as many things as you can to the web. If you're staying within one chapter/lecture you're doing it wrong.
 
efle said:
the easiest way is usually to know all the correct answers
Click to expand...
-_-

In all seriousness, I'm in the same pickle with my summer class. Didn't do well on the first test, and the class isn't curved at all. ( Honestly, UGrad would be so nice if some of my classes were curved...I'm a bit jelly rn). I can still do well in the class, but now I would need to ace the other tests. We also had multiple A,B, C is both, D is neither type of questions and they were just stupid. I think the key is knowing how to eliminate the wrong answers, so like
Well A has to be wrong because hydrophobic amino acids can't do H-bonds, so C is also wrong. Now let's see if B can be wrong at all, maybe it's not always it's sometimes, etc. I think getting inside your profs head in the sense that , is this answer choice trying to trick you, etc, is important .
Edit: My emojii doesn't have a sweat bead b/c it's not nervous or crying it's just annoyed.
Double Edit: It's especially depressing b/c I usually kill multiple choice, they normally " ruin me" like they do for some other students, they actually are better for me than a straightforward short answer question, b/c that blank space makes me anxious.
 
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mwsapphire said:
Edit: My emojii doesn't have a sweat bead b/c it's not nervous or crying it's just annoyed.
Click to expand...

Oh... Dang it. All this time I thought it was bangs. Never did I think that it was sweat, or tears. :smack:
 
mwsapphire said:
-_-

In all seriousness, I'm in the same pickle with my summer class. Didn't do well on the first test, and the class isn't curved at all. ( Honestly, UGrad would be so nice if some of my classes were curved...I'm a bit jelly rn). I can still do well in the class, but now I would need to ace the other tests. We also had multiple A,B, C is both, D is neither type of questions and they were just stupid. I think the key is knowing how to eliminate the wrong answers, so like
Well A has to be wrong because hydrophobic amino acids can't do H-bonds, so C is also wrong. Now let's see if B can be wrong at all, maybe it's not always it's sometimes, etc. I think getting inside your profs head in the sense that , is this answer choice trying to trick you, etc, is important .
Edit: My emojii doesn't have a sweat bead b/c it's not nervous or crying it's just annoyed.
Click to expand...
What summer class are you taking?
 
It is hard to explain, but you have to start to see the things that make an answer choice wrong, and things that don't make an answer choice right in your opinion, but don't explicitly make it wrong either. I think a lot of the ones we miss, we have some small gripe with the correct answer choice and we pick one that we know has something false in it because it is almost true, and we want kind of throw the middle finger at the question.
 
Turkishking said:
It's typically one concept combined with another concept with unusual wording and answer choices
Click to expand...
See A.

Turkishking said:
It's either that I get tunnel vision and select only one of the correct answers, but the right answer is like E: Both A and C
Click to expand...
See B.

A.) Study more and B.) don't rush yourself. Take your time and narrow down the options, eliminate the ones you know to be incorrect, and then base your answer on your knowledge bank. If you don't know it you don't know it, there's no magic behind multiple choice tests.
 
Khan Acadamy and company...
 
efle said:
Stupid questions get stupid answers brah

the guy getting 100% just knows a couple more answers than you do
be him by knowing more correct answers
Click to expand...
There are different studying methods for different types of questions on tests, it wasn't really an unreasonable question.
Just b/c it's obvious to , you finished college and obviously did really well, doesn't mean it's obvious to everyone.
 
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If you are truely mastering the material and it's not a physics test (where the units might be ridiculous like anstroms per fortnight) then I'd suggest you work on reading comprehension and logic
 
1) Are you taking all of the time allotted for the exam? A lot of people race through exams and finish an hour early, just to find out they bombed it. Take all of the time. Every multiple choice test I take, I take two or three times over. I just keep going over it and over it until the time is up. Combing for simple mistakes ("ohhh, wait, that should be *negative* 38!").

2) eliminate wrong answers. talk yourself through why each option is correct or incorrect in your head. make sure your logic is sound. Try to hold each answer in your mind as a reasonable option until you have found a way to eliminate it.

3) know your **** really, really well
 
Y'all posting in a troll thread.
 
The only class I got 100's on exam was in gen Chem
 
As someome who goes to a school where the enormous pre-req course tests are mostly scantron MC, heres what I do.

Know the material 100 percent and you get a 100 percent.

Go with your gut every time- do not overthink.

In my experience "the wording is tricky" can be solved in about 10 seconds of thinking if you really know the material.
 
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