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- Jun 20, 2007
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So I learned a little bit about Test Taking these past few weeks. And you guys can do with this as you wish, but it's some advice I had gotten a million times before but never really applied to anything with any amount of diligence. But now, I have seen the light, and hopefully you will too.
Before you read any further, know that I am not telling you anything you probably haven't heard, but I AM asking you to try it, and I'll give some reasoning as to why this may work for you if you haven't already used the techniques.
Step 1
READ THE ANSWER CHOICES FIRST 👍
Everyone has heard this. EVERYONE.
No one does it though. 😡
This is something that MUST be applied to your test taking strategy. Anyone who has listened to Goljian has heard him say it, but it's actually been studied and proven that if you READ the answer choices first, then the Question stem, you'll do better, on average about 10% increase.

Your brain already has all the information it needs. There is little to nothing that you will be asked about on the boards that you don't already know, or already knew about before hand. However, by reading the question stem first, your brain gets convoluted, and unless you already know the answer right off the top of your head, you will get more gears turning than need be. As you go through the answer choices with your mind already digesting the craziness that it was just given, it will be difficult to pull the right answer out when there are a few that might apply.
MORE IMPORTANTLY:
By reading the answer choices first, your brain accesses its preformed knowledge of each answer. You read E. coli, and you automatically think MCC of UTI, Montezuma's, hamburger... all those things run through your head. Then you see Proteus underneath it. You think, kidney stones, urease, blah blah blah... Then you see Pseudomonas, and strep and your brain quickly pulls the facts about those things out.
More often than not, when you see clumps of answers together, you'll know what the question stem is going to be asking you before you even read it. Try it and you'll see. Practice this on a Q-bank and be mindful of what you're doing. Read the answers first, pick one of the answers, then read the stem.
After you read the stem, you'll already have primed your mind with the likelihood of each of the answers. You'll read the stem, and it will confirm your gut instinct. 😎
STEP 2
Don't call it a Zebra when you know it's a Horse. 😕
Everyone has heard this, and very few people realize that they're doing it. Especially the people used to TUTOR MODE.
This is the inevitable downfall of tutor mode. I found myself doing this a lot. I would get a list of answers down to 2. And then, it didn't matter because the second you picked one, the answer would pop up underneath and either confirm or deny your pick. And for God Darn sakes, I don't know how many times I picked the weird one "just to see."
This is a mistake that you're going to subconsciously make on the exam unless of course, you get out of that Tutor Mode habit. If you KNOW for damn sure one of the two can do something, but you pick the other one, just in case, you're shooting yourself in the foot. I did this a couple of times, and this is a habit you MUST get out of.
It'll happen to you on Q-bank, you'll be dickin' around on Tutor Mode and from some odd ass reason, you'll have your answers down to 2, you know that scalded skin syndrome is Staph aureus, but pseudomonas is the other answer and you're torn between the two. You read the stem again and again, a kid's skin is scalded and he develops an infection nosocomially. What's the bug? And you're like, ahhh, I'll just pick pseudomonas for the hell of it, even though i can put staph with scalded, and poof, explanation says it is pseudomonas. It wasn't scalded skin syndrome, the kid was burned, and burn patients get pseudomonas, and you just fell into the trap of positive reinforcement. You picked the zebra and were right that one time. (this is just an example, it's not a typical version of what would happen so cut me some slack here) And then you'll do it more and more... Don't let the snowball happen... this is the downfall of tutor mode. You'll say to yourself at the end of the block, oh, it's ok, 6 of those I knew, I just made a dumb mistake, but then you'll find yourself continuing to do it. Get out of that habit come test day.
Okay, hope these tips help. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE apply them to a 50 question Q-bank and see the increase in your score. Be mindful of it, and do it. Force yourself to. You will see.
If I get some positive responses, I'll throw some more tips in.
cv

