I have a kind of crazy methodical approach, but it depends on how fast you can read/write and a lot of it was mostly something I started doing because of OCD. However, I think it has helped me be a very solid MC test taker and I think having a defined approach has helped me in interpreting and answering questions. I tend to have problems with reading through exams too quickly and accidentally skimmimg misreading important information, so some of what I do is related to trying to circumvent that.
Some general things I do that may or may not be helpful for someone else:
- If there's a big modifier in the question (like NOT or EXCEPT) then I circle it about 800 times lol. Mostly because I am bad at reading
- For any answer that I'm scratching out as incorrect, I will circle the part of the answer that is wrong (say that part of the answer was "decreased BUN" and I know that BUN absolutely doesn't decrease with the scenario they gave us, I'll circle that phrase). That way, when I'm reviewing the test before I turn it in I can see right away that there was a reason I marked that one wrong so I don't need to re-read that answer
- When I mark out answers I will also sometimes write next to them why I marked it off - for example, the answer may say "Bilirubin increased due to anorexia" and I might write "Patient is a cat, not a horse" next to that answer when I cross it off. This forces me to have a justified thought process for ruling answers in or out and helps me remember what I was thinking the first time when I go over my test again
- On questions I can't answer right off the bat, I look to see if there are any answers that I know for sure are wrong right off the bat and mark them out. This way when I come back to the question I can spend more time focusing on teasing apart the answers I wasn't sure about instead of having to tackle the entire question all over again
- I also jot notes to myself on questions I can't answer right off the bat. Why can't I decide between two different answers? What are my thoughts on those? This is sometimes helpful when I've got it narrowed down to two or three options rather than "I have no idea lol" questions haha
- Sometimes, especially on long tricky questions, I will write next to the question what I am really being asked. This is especially helpful for questions with a lot of patient data where the question sometimes gets buried in the data. For example, a zillion paragraph question about a dog is easier for me to answer when I can write next to it "Why is the dog anemic?" Because that is what my professor is actually asking in the question
- Similar to above, I check that the answer I chose isn't just correct, but that it actually answers the question being asked.
- When I'm answering a question and find an answer I like, I'll use that answer as the benchmark and compare other answers I'm not sure about against it. For example, I like answer A, but answer B also seems correct - but seems less correct compared to answer A, so B gets crossed out. C seems correct as well, and when comparing C to A, C seems more correct than A, so A gets crossed out and now C is used as my benchmark for the rest of the answers to this question
- When it comes to "What is the best answer" questions, I'll rule out any incorrect answers and then I'll sometimes number the remaining correct answers based on the magnitude of effect I think that answer has. For example, in the "Why is the dog anemic?" question, let's say the dog is in end stage renal failure and presented with a PCV of 6... but the history also says he presented after getting run over by an SUV. In my head the SUV would take precedence over the renal failure because that's severe, acute, and something that can cause a large magnitude of change quickly that is likely to be relevant to my patient. Was he probably already anemic because of the renal failure? Sure. But if I have to choose between the two I'm picking the higher magnitude, more common sense option even though both of those answers are correct
- I go through my exams about a million times. Usually once to read/answer/write thoughts on questions I don't know the answer to, once to answer questions I didn't know the answer to, once to bubble in the answers I circled on the test, and once again to make sure my bubbled answers match my circled answers lol. When my OCD was really bad I used to basically not be able to turn in exams until I went through them five times minimum... 😳
If I really have absolutely no idea...
- I look for answers that are the same but written with opposing language (e.g. one answer is "GFR will increase because XYZ" and the other is "GFR will decrease because XYZ") and try to pick between one of the two, because I have generally found that when questions are written like this that one of those two is right
- I'll pick the longest answer, especially if the other answers are way shorter by comparison. Correct answers often need qualifications to be completely accurate, which tends to make them longer
- In questions with "All of the above" or "none of the above" as answers, I'll often pick one of those. I read a paper somewhere that in questions with these answers in them, one of these answers is correct something like >50% of the time, so guessing between one of these can improve the chances of getting the answer correct. If I truly have no idea I'll usually go through and see if any of the answers are right or wrong, then pick the appropriate "all of" answer. The exception to this is when I read through and find both a right and a wrong answer in the pool, then I know I can cross off both the "all of"s plus at least one of the other answers based on the question and then I at least have improved guessing chances from there
This post is getting long and rambling, but yeah lol. I also do a lot worse on online multiple choice exams compared to paper ones because I can't write all over the questions/answers like I like to. If they let you bring in scratch paper that's where I usually do a lot of my writing damage, but it's not always the same haha
I'd honestly rather just pay for it ourselves and get to do whatever the f*** I want than have to do everything she wants.
