Keep making silly errors on exams!

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chemdoctor

chemdoctor

Full Member
5+ Year Member
Hello everyone.

What do you guys do about dumb mistakes on exams? Like I misread or some nonsense. I went over an exam and I literally CHANGED MY ANSWER TO THE WRONG ONE. I don’t know how to STOP this

How am I going to do well in med school when I can’t stop making silly errors on exams? How did y’all do it?
 
Learn the material really well so im confident. The best advise that I ever had was to be bold. This was in Physics and that taught me to trust my responses especially if I had studied. I hada Physical Chemistry test the other day and FINALLy I was able to nail it only because I trusted my instincts. If you practice enough, I swear the brain goes to the right answer even if your pen wants to do something else.
I also underline the most important parts of a question because background noise doesnt help me at all.
Be Bold!
 
Myopicvisions said:
Learn the material really well so im confident. The best advise that I ever had was to be bold. This was in Physics and that taught me to trust my responses especially if I had studied. I hada Physical Chemistry test the other day and FINALLy I was able to nail it only because I trusted my instincts. If you practice enough, I swear the brain goes to the right answer even if your pen wants to do something else.
I also underline the most important parts of a question because background noise doesnt help me at all.
Be Bold!
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Ugh I know. I had so many right answers selected and I CHANGED THEM TO THE WRONG ANSWER. I feel like I shouldn’t go over my test while taking it
 
I had a student I tutored for the MCAT do this a lot on his practice exams. He was so worried about what he didn’t know that it caused him to get stuff wrong that he did know. Get your inner voice to tell yourself you’re smart rather than constantly questioning what you’re doing.
 
chemdoctor said:
Thanks guys. I don’t know what to do. I change answers that were right to wrong ones
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Also, consider seeing your university learning center to deal with test anxiety, or counseling center to deal with anxiety in general*.

You have a posting pattern of beating yourself down over and over again when others are trying to give you advice. Learn from your mistakes, FORGIVE YOURSELF, and move on.

*I am in no way giving you medical advice. This is simply an observation I’ve made from reading other posts by this OP.
 
chemdoctor said:
Hello everyone.

What do you guys do about dumb mistakes on exams? Like I misread or some nonsense. I went over an exam and I literally CHANGED MY ANSWER TO THE WRONG ONE. I don’t know how to STOP this

How am I going to do well in med school when I can’t stop making silly errors on exams? How did y’all do it?
Click to expand...
For starters, you have ot have the discipline to trust your gut, because your first answer is usually the correct one. Then you have to merely look over the exam to make sure that you have filled in every answer, and then have the discipline to stop there and hand it in.

This will prevent you from second guessing (and self-sabotaging) yourself

And make sure to fully read all questions and answers. People often have their brains stop after seeing only partially correct info.
 
Moocille said:
Also, consider seeing your university learning center to deal with test anxiety, or counseling center to deal with anxiety in general*.

You have a posting pattern of beating yourself down over and over again when others are trying to give you advice. Learn from your mistakes, FORGIVE YOURSELF, and move on.

*I am in no way giving you medical advice. This is simply an observation I’ve made from reading other posts by this OP.
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How do I forgive myself? Feel like I’ve messed up pretty bad :-/
 
During the MCAT I finished the Bio section with 5 minutes left and for some ungodly reason went through and changed SIX answers on a total whim of randomness

All six were changed from the right to the wrong answer
 
Dude, you've gotta get some self confidence about your academics. You've got a shame complex going, and believe me I get it, but you need to stop putting your worth in how well you do academically. It's gonna make you an anxious, nervous wreck
 
athorcommens said:
Dude, you've gotta get some self confidence about your academics. You've got a shame complex going, and believe me I get it, but you need to stop putting your worth in how well you do academically. It's gonna make you an anxious, nervous wreck
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“Gonna make”? Dude. Ship. Sailed. It’s so annoying
 
athorcommens said:
Dude, you've gotta get some self confidence about your academics. You've got a shame complex going, and believe me I get it, but you need to stop putting your worth in how well you do academically. It's gonna make you an anxious, nervous wreck
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Yeah idk man
 
chemdoctor said:
Counseling has helped you?
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Counseling in general helps anyone who needs help and actually complies with it. That's what it exists for.

I don't know why there seems to be this weird stigma against counseling, therapy, or even going to talk to people in real life about your problems on this forum. People act like somehow they'll be "found out" by their medical school, apparently wanting to go to medical school (or are in medical school) and having never heard of HIPAA.
 
My test taking abilities went to the next level using the philosophical principle known as Occam's Razor.

If you don't know what that is already look it up. I was like you...our problem is that we end up choosing the less simpler solution/answer.
 
chemdoctor said:
Hello everyone.

What do you guys do about dumb mistakes on exams? Like I misread or some nonsense. I went over an exam and I literally CHANGED MY ANSWER TO THE WRONG ONE. I don’t know how to STOP this

How am I going to do well in med school when I can’t stop making silly errors on exams? How did y’all do it?
Click to expand...

1) RTFQ - read the f***ing question. Slow down, underline keywords, etc if you have to.

2) Don’t change answers unless 100% sure. You are usually more likely to switch from correct to incorrect than vice versa.
 
no such thing as silly mistakes. there is always a reason why you missed a question, even if that reason ends up being that the answer key was incorrect. "I misread the question" is not a silly mistake...it means you misread the question. Unfortunately, on multiple choice exams there is no appreciable difference between "misreading the question" and "I literally dont know a single thing about what this question is asking".

The most valuable thing I recommend that you probably dont do already is to always do postmortems on problem sets, quizzes, exams, all of it. Go question by question and review your logic. Why did you choose this answer, instead of this other one? If you changed your answer after finishing the exam then something about that question made you doubt yourself, something about the correct answer seemed off, and something about the answer you changed your response to attracted you. You will most likely notice a pattern in your thinking if you do this enough and that will give you an opportunity to improve on your weaknesses not just in a particular subject but as a test-taker in general. I also suggest having a higher burden of proof for second-pass/changed answers than first-pass picks. If the exam is MC, always be doing process of elimination. Never pick an answer merely because you think it is correct, but because you know why every other choice is definitely wrong as well.

Don't take any exam or grade personally. MC tests are very poor ways to measure intelligence or ability and even if they were those things shouldnt determine your self-worth. I know it's definitely much easier said than done especially when it feels like you cant be anything less than perfect to get into medical school. The truth you should learn to accept is that you aren't perfect, and don't need to be, but it is essential that you are always looking for ways to improve. There is no getting over it, I don't think. I was never as much of a perfectionist as my peers, but even then I vividly remember having a dream about the single question I missed on an ochem final after taking the exam. It was a really easy question, "how many stereoisomers does this molecule have?" and it was some big complicated antibiotic; literally the only thing you had to do was count chiral centers and do 2^n. In the dream, I saw the molecule and woke up in the middle of the night knowing I had miscounted chiral centers by 1. Got the test back and lo and behold there was the missing chiral center. Did it matter? No. Did it shatter my id, ego, etc? No. And yet it haunted me in my dreams anyway. Have to learn to live with it.
 
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chemdoctor said:
How am I going to do well in med school when I can’t stop making silly errors on exams? How did y’all do it?
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I made silly mistakes on exams all throughout medical school as well.

The smartest students I know would make stupid mistakes on exams.

The difference is that they mastered the material so well, that only 1 or 2 stupid mistakes still gave them a solid 97% lol. So expect stupid mistakes at the highest levels, and realize that 1 or 2 stupid mistakes in an overall mastery of the subject doesn't really hold you back.
 
For the questions you're 80-90% sure about, don't look at them again. For the questions you're on the fence about, go with your gut answer and move on. Once you finish your exam go back to the on the fence questions if you have time. Usually taking your mind off that specific question and coming back to it lets you think about it from a different perspective which usually just reaffirms your first choice anyway.

Or just hand the exam in right away.
 
@chemdoctor I'm going to share my test taking strategy. I didn't read the above posts so if it's redundant or someone else has said it oh well. Anyway, this is how I approach multiple choice answers:

As you go through your exam, don't commit to an answer unless you're almost 100% sure that's the right answer. Leave it blank and move on to the next question and then circle back to it at the end so you're not feeling rushed. It clears your head.

Once you're back the second time re-read the question carefully without immediately looking at the answer choices and try to think what you think the answer may be. As you go through your answer choices cross out the ones you're sure is wrong so at least if you're down to 2 it's a 50-50 chance and you're not tempted to choose an obviously wrong answer just because you get flustered.

Finally, if you have to guess, go with your gut and don't change it. Your gut feeling generally will be more right than wrong. Don't second guess yourself cause you'll end up rationalizing your way INTO the wrong answer.

The caveat is that you've actually done your part to be as prepared as possible and have requisite knowledge to make educated guesses. If you crammed the night before you're SOL.
 
What I do is I try to manage my time such that I get to overstudy for an exam so I finish a 2 hour exam in 1.5 hours. This allows me 20-30 minutes to go back and review my answers where I catch all the little mistakes that I make as described by OP.
 
For test anxiety, I found this mindset advice to be valuable:

Don’t look at the test as you starting out with a 100% and you lose points for every wrong or potentially wrong answer. That sets you up to become more and more stressed as you struggle with questions. Instead, look at each question as a potential to gain points instead, and approach each one individually.

This mindset shift has helped me tremendously on exams.
 
This thread is so relatable lol
Everyone makes dumb mistakes on MC tests, or wavers between 2 answers. If that happens, you didnt have enough confidence in the material and should remedy that. I second everyone who said to seek counseling for this as it sounds like it is causing way more anxiety than is normal.
 
Btw this thread is also useful for MCAT and boards that are multiple choice based. The strategies listed here apply and are very helpful in crushing the exams.

For me, the time pressure forces me to rely a lot more on gut feels and instinct. And i find that my initial guess is usually right.
 
Gonna add in my strategy. Mark questions you're unsure on, but when you go back to review it at the end, follow the same rules used in most sports with video review-- you can't overturn the call on the field unless there is unquestionable proof it was wrong. So when you go back, don't approach the question in the same way you did the first time, looking for the best answer. Instead approach it with the mentality that you have to prove your answer wrong in order to change it. That 1.) Helps reduce the chance of changing a right answer to a wrong one and 2.) Takes some of the anxiety of guessing out of the situation because it lifts some of the personal responsibility out of the decision making, forcing you to follow the rule of undeniable proof instead.
 
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