I SUCK at tests

[RedVelvet1]

No, seriously. I suck. I wish I could take a class on it but I don't know where. Someone had mentioned they are offered at one school but I couldn't find any more info on it online.

I am a first year medical student and have failed tests not because I don't understand the material, but because I get so tricked up on Multiple Choice. And I know what you're all thinking- "But the boards are Multiple Choice!" So how about we fix this problem before that comes up...

I've thought about buying the books on it and have called Kaplan but they only offer classes geared toward specific tests.

Anyone know on any test taking classes?

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[Pinkertinkle]

What is it that you find difficult about the MC format?

 

[njbmd]

No, seriously. I suck. I wish I could take a class on it but I don't know where. Someone had mentioned they are offered at one school but I couldn't find any more info on it online.

I am a first year medical student and have failed tests not because I don't understand the material, but because I get so tricked up on Multiple Choice. And I know what you're all thinking- "But the boards are Multiple Choice!" So how about we fix this problem before that comes up...

I've thought about buying the books on it and have called Kaplan but they only offer classes geared toward specific tests.

Anyone know on any test taking classes?

Find out if your school offers study skills seminars and take advantage of them. If you keep labeling yourself as you have described, it becomes self-fufilling. This is something that you need to take care of and the summer may be your opportunity to do this but your first stop is your school to see what they have in place.

 

[DOCTORSAIB]

No, seriously. I suck. I wish I could take a class on it but I don't know where. Someone had mentioned they are offered at one school but I couldn't find any more info on it online.

I am a first year medical student and have failed tests not because I don't understand the material, but because I get so tricked up on Multiple Choice. And I know what you're all thinking- "But the boards are Multiple Choice!" So how about we fix this problem before that comes up...

I've thought about buying the books on it and have called Kaplan but they only offer classes geared toward specific tests.

Anyone know on any test taking classes?

Didn't you take the MCAT? That was MC.

I am not fully convinced you really UNDERSTAND the material. You may not be really learning the material at the depth that's required to at least pass. I wouldn't blame MC tests per say.

I agree with Njbmd -- you need to get take advantage of any STUDY skill services your med school may offer.

Keep your head up man. Med school ain't easy. Adjust your game and you will see an increase in scores. You got this far. That says something about your work ethic..

G'luck.

 

[ACSurgeon]

Didn't you take the MCAT? That was MC.

I am not fully convinced you really UNDERSTAND the material. You may not be really learning the material at the depth that's required to at least pass. I wouldn't blame MC tests per say.

I agree with Njbmd -- you need to get take advantage of any STUDY skill services your med school may offer.

Keep your head up man. Med school ain't easy. Adjust your game and you will see an increase in scores. You got this far. That says something about your work ethic..

G'luck.

I suspect this may the problem as well. Too many medical students relay on memorizing little details and never integrate what they learn. If you understand how things are related, MC exams become less tricky. With that, I know that some prof's ask unfair questions that were not taught and expect you to pull knowledge out of your a$$. Try to read from at least 2 sources, and maybe do the practice questions in BRS/ pretest books etc. That way you can learn from your mistakes before the exam. Good luck!

 

[AmoryBlaine]

I suppose the OP already knows this but MC is really all you get in medicine. It's not just board exams but also residency in-service, licensing exams, and continuing med ed.

It is extremely difficult to believe that the MC format is responsible for problems during first year. Your post begs the question: would you be doing much better on essay tests? MC is a fairly standard, logical way to test knowledge. How can you know something well and not be able to perform with MC questions? I just doesn't make sense.

 

[bawer234]

I agree with what everyone else has been saying. Maybe you do know the material but you are not studying the proper way. A good technique I used in undergrad to help prepare me for MC tests was to create special flash cards. The flash cards had questions that I created and came up with, something that I thought the teacher may ask on the actual exam.

Ex: I would be studying biology. Instead of saying "abc" on one side and the definition on the other, I would ask a question like "what would expect to find abc located next to?" on one side and then the answer on the other. (Not the greatest example, but I think you get the point)

I tried to make the questions as backwards and complicated as I could to MAKE SURE I not only knew the material but understood it. There is a large difference between knowing something and understanding it. A frist-grader can know that 2 + 3 = 5, but unless he understands it, he won't be able to tell you what 3 + 2 equals.

This could very well be your problem. You may know the location of the spinous process, lamina, and pedicle on a vertebrae, but do you know which structures are removed in a laminectomy? It's these kinds of questions that will prepare you for your exams. If you are preforming poorly on your Multiple Choice tests, I really don't think you KNOW the material. Trying going one step further in your preparation and see where that takes you.

 

[RedVelvet1]

Hey thanks for posting.

I can understand why you would think that someone was doing poorly due to just memorizing but not understanding. I do try to understand the
material however and don't like memorizing.


I don't think it's true that simply understanding the material automatically makes people do well in MC. I know people who don't always understand things thoroughly but are simply good test takers. I know one kid who was like this but when he went on to third year he didn't always know the answers to the questions asked to him on the wards. On the other hands, some of his friends who understood the material but weren't good test takers did worse than him 2nd year but now know questions better than him now that it's 3rd year.

In regards to flashcards- I really don't like flashcards. Something about how they separate the material out bothers me. But anyway, in college for one class I would make up practice questions for myself and then answer them. I find this harder to do in med school because it is so time consuming.



I feel like to do well you need to do 3 things:
1) Understand it
2) Have it in your memory for the test
3) Perform well

Somewhere along the lines of 2 and 3 I get messed up. Sometimes even if I know it I get confused when I do the questions.

 

[Orthodoc40]

One thing that helped me was going over practice test questions with someone who is a 'good test taker'. They would read the question to me, and then say, either, "So, they are asking you this..." or "So, what are they asking you for?"

And many times that was all I'd need but if not, we'd go through the answers in similar ways.

It sounds basic but the reason this helps is because over time I am getting the hang of how a successful test taker thinks through tests and test questions themselves. I find myself developing those thought patterns during my own test taking, and it has improved a lot.

Instead of a piano lesson, its a test taking lesson!

 

[DOCTORSAIB]

I'll be perfectly honest with you -- YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND THE MATERIAL WELL. Med school is very rarely "complex." It's not rocket science. It's a flood. You know, that whole "drinking from..." thing.

Having said that, I think you need to do more practice questions!

Do the questions at the end of the chapters in review books (get the appropriate books NOW if you haven't) and go get Kaplans Qbook and do those questions in that as well.

Try to buy a copy of the BSS (Board Simulator Series) CD on ebay and do those questions as well.

There's also the Pretest series, Appleton & Lange question book, etc.

Do everything you can get your hands on, short of maybe USMLEWORLD and/or Kaplans Qbank -- which I'd recommend you save until boards time.

Clearly, you need to change your approach. If it ain't working, toss it!

How much are you studying, btw? And with whom?

 

[DrJosephKim]

For each question, as you fill in the answer, on another sheet of paper, rate your level of confidence from 1 to 10 (1 = I don't know this answer; 10 = I definitely know this answer).

After you complete the practice exam, see which answers you missed and rated a confidence = 9 or 10. These are areas where you have MIS-INFORMATION and you must replace what you think you know with the correct information.


For the areas where your confidence was weak (rated 1-3), you recognize that you lack that information. Review these subjects to gain confidence.

 

[ZagDoc]

For each question, as you fill in the answer, on another sheet of paper, rate your level of confidence from 1 to 10 (1 = I don't know this answer; 10 = I definitely know this answer).

After you complete the practice exam, see which answers you missed and rated a confidence = 9 or 10. These are areas where you have MIS-INFORMATION and you must replace what you think you know with the correct information.


For the areas where your confidence was weak (rated 1-3), you recognize that you lack that information. Review these subjects to gain confidence.

Great advice. What a cool technique.

I would also add my 2 cents. If you are a slow test taker or feel stressed by a time crunch at all when taking a test, go through the test a first time and answer all those "9 or 10 confidence" questions right off the bat, immediately skipping any question you have to take more than 15-20 seconds on. Then go back and slog through the more difficult ones.

I would also echo the advice on this thread. While everyone eventually develops their own test-taking style, there are "good techniques" and "good habits" to learn and practice. The difference between a good test taker and a bad tester taker more often then not is not intelligence or some innate good guessing ability but effective methods learned over the years. Utilizing this time off to maximize those might benefit you more then you think.

 

[myrtle]

I wasn't doing all that well first year either, but what changed for me was practice questions and going through the material as many times as possible.

Practice questions - Ptest, anything the school offers, review books. Generally there are a few things that are important that are testable and they're not necessarily what you get out of reading. Practice questions will draw these out easily. don't be afraid to get them wrong, do read the answers and annotate whatever you're learning from.

Go through the material as many times as you can. Pre-read, go to class or read the notes, do some questions, re-read and repeat. If you don't undertand what you're reading, try not to get bogged down in it and find some other way to get through the rough patch - audio lectures (class, goljan), animations, drawing out info, going through it with a friend.

Good luck! You will get better.

 

[yohimbine1]

Oh man...if there is one career that will be difficult if you are bad at tests, and MC ones especially, it's got to be medicine. They just never end

 

[DickyV]

I am a first year medical student and have failed tests not because I don't understand the material, but because I get so tricked up on Multiple Choice. And I know what you're all thinking- "But the boards are Multiple Choice!" So how about we fix this problem before that comes up...

A few generic suggestions, in no particular order. Be aware that these may be more/less helpful depending on how well the MCQs at your school are formulated.

1. Slow down. Read every word of the question (if you're lucky - it will actually be a question). Ideally, you'll have an idea of what the answer is before you even look at the answer choices.
2. Pay attention to your negative modifiers - false, all except, not, never, etc. If you think you need to answer a question about the Bainbridge Reflex, you're going to get it wrong when it's really a question about what is NOT involved in Bainbridge.
3. Evaluate each answer choice individually (I realize that I said to not look at the answers in #1, but sometimes you have to look at them). In classes where the profs like to ask "all are true except" type questions, I'll mark T/F after each statement, then go back and worry about applying logic to the question.
4. Know your question writer. While I've seen exams where questions were randomized, I've also seen plenty where there are five questions from lecture 1 followed by five from lecture 2 and so on. "Pathological splitting of S2" is probably not the correct answer in a neuroscience section of an exam.
5. Practice questions/old exams - the best thing you can do (for learning material and doing better on exams) is to dissect whatever practice questions you have. Rather than taking it as a practice test to gauge your score or just looking over correct answers, sit down with an old exam and figure out why each distractor is incorrect! (You obviously won't be able to do this for every question on every exam, but it can be a good exercise when you have some time during the summer after M1).

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. PM me if you'd like some more suggestions/help.

 

[MonkeyNuts!]

Practice questions/old exams - the best thing you can do (for learning material and doing better on exams) is to dissect whatever practice questions you have. Rather than taking it as a practice test to gauge your score or just looking over correct answers, sit down with an old exam and figure out why each distractor is incorrect! (You obviously won't be able to do this for every question on every exam, but it can be a good exercise when you have some time during the summer after M1).

This is pretty much all you need. And ask your upper classmen what should be studied to do well on the exam. There's no point in learning everything they throw at you in med school if you end up failing out. Exam and passing classes first. Learning experience later.

 

[SQUmedic]

I totally agree with OP. Well, thats because I am in the same state. My GPA has gone down significantly and thats not because I dont understand the material, MCQs are just not my cup of tea. I come from the british system of education. We dont give MCAT for admissons, rather the entrance test has an essay, short descriptions and etc. So its my first time to face MCQs. And at the moment I suck at it. I have talked to senior students and they are comfortable with MCQs. To be honest, (although il be going against the entire world) MCQs are not a good tool for testing ! Monkeys do know how to circle as well. and at random they might pass as well.. lol
But nevertheless, i have been working on answering MCQs in my holidays and realizing where I go wrong and how to tackle them. Its very sad because students like us suffer the most and are often labelled as weak students academically.

I jus wanted to support the OP..and thank everyone else for sharing the information !