The dumbest question ever asked on an exam thread

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A two year old presents to the ER with a very severe sunburn. Which of the following is most likely?

A. Some random disease
B. Xeroderma pigmentosum
C. Some random disease
D. Some other disease
E. Excessive sun exposure

Funny thing is that we had discussed XP in two different lectures for this test.
 
From a pharm test...

What class of drug was The Rolling Stones song "Mothers Little Helper" about?

a. Opioids
b. Benzodiazepines
c. Barbiturates
d. ????
e. ????

It was a really dumb question because the teacher mentioned it once in lecture (nowhere in the lecture notes), it had no clinical relevance, and the question itself didn't give you ANY hints as to the nature of the drug. I was not happy with this question; it ended up costing me a letter grade in the class. (if I had gotten it right, I woulda gotten the next highest grade). Anyway, the answer is b for those of you wondering. The funny thing is that most of the older students got it right, but the younger ones got it wrong.
 
tideleonheart said:
From a pharm test...

What class of drug was The Rolling Stones song "Mothers Little Helper" about?

a. Opioids
b. Benzodiazepines
c. Barbiturates
d. ????
e. ????

It was a really dumb question because the teacher mentioned it once in lecture (nowhere in the lecture notes), it had no clinical relevance, and the question itself didn't give you ANY hints as to the nature of the drug. I was not happy with this question; it ended up costing me a letter grade in the class. (if I had gotten it right, I woulda gotten the next highest grade). Anyway, the answer is b for those of you wondering. The funny thing is that most of the older students got it right, but the younger ones got it wrong.
Click to expand...
Silly question, but its relatively obvious that an anti-anxiety drug is the answer. But how to decide on specifically which one? Pop culture references should not be testable medical school material.
 
Raryn said:
Silly question, but its relatively obvious that an anti-anxiety drug is the answer. But how to decide on specifically which one? Pop culture references should not be testable medical school material.
Click to expand...

wait til third year. Surgeons love to pimp on music and other types of trivia - I'd say this test was a good prep for that.
 
Raryn said:
Pop culture references should not be testable medical school material.
Click to expand...

I agree.

However, I'm thinking his professor was trying to reward the people who go to lecture. We have a prof like that who on each exam has at least one question that has nothing to do with anything - but it's something that he mentioned in class (e.g. what's my favorite sports car?). These questions are never worth more than 1-2% of the test though.

We don't have mandatory attendance, so he gets us back this way I guess.
 
southernIM said:
wait til third year. Surgeons love to pimp on music and other types of trivia - I'd say this test was a good prep for that.
Click to expand...

I've had some long and interesting discussions about the "true" meaning of song lyrics in the OR.

The anesthesiologist looked up the Allman Bros album Eat a Peach for us to find out where that title came from.
 
tideleonheart said:
From a pharm test...

What class of drug was The Rolling Stones song "Mothers Little Helper" about?

a. Opioids
b. Benzodiazepines
c. Barbiturates
d. ????
e. ????

It was a really dumb question because the teacher mentioned it once in lecture (nowhere in the lecture notes), it had no clinical relevance, and the question itself didn't give you ANY hints as to the nature of the drug. I was not happy with this question; it ended up costing me a letter grade in the class. (if I had gotten it right, I woulda gotten the next highest grade). Anyway, the answer is b for those of you wondering. The funny thing is that most of the older students got it right, but the younger ones got it wrong.
Click to expand...


Valium is a benzo, btw.
 
I think most of the pointless trivia came from microanatomy.

"In the open theory of splenic circulation, where does blood flow to after _____?"

I mean these aren't even "facts," the true circulation of the spleen isn't even established yet (as we were told there is still debate between the closed and open theories)
 
"True or false: sevoflurane would take the paint off your car."

Very important information... highly relevant to medicine...
 
tideleonheart said:
From a pharm test...

What class of drug was The Rolling Stones song "Mothers Little Helper" about?

a. Opioids
b. Benzodiazepines
c. Barbiturates
d. ????
e. ????

It was a really dumb question because the teacher mentioned it once in lecture (nowhere in the lecture notes), it had no clinical relevance, and the question itself didn't give you ANY hints as to the nature of the drug. I was not happy with this question; it ended up costing me a letter grade in the class. (if I had gotten it right, I woulda gotten the next highest grade). Anyway, the answer is b for those of you wondering. The funny thing is that most of the older students got it right, but the younger ones got it wrong.
Click to expand...

I think I would fit in quite well with this teacher... I happen to enjoy pop culture references in medicine. But I don't think it really tests your knowledge of pharmacology very well.
 
Don't recall any outright "dumb" questions, but I always had a sore spot for ones that were just written terribly. Such as "You're about to start thinking about preparing to have lifted a heavy box..." and then goes on to ask about some muscle physiology tidbit or another. Ugh.

I'm a bit amused at the discussion of some med schools "teaching students how to read CTs, MRIs..." previously. There's no way in hell any med school can teach its students how to read CTs or MRIs or plain films or whatever. They might can teach you how to identify basic anatomy landmarks on imaging, but that's a far far cry from being able to "read" the study.

We had tons of radiology lectures in years 1 and 2. About half were targeted at knowing which study to order for what screening or diagnostic situation, the other half learning how to approach different images, what was bright or dark, and how to identify anatomy. Very, very basic stuff.
 
In M1 we had a question in Cardio about a person hemorrhaging and the physiological adjustments your body makes in the 24 hours following a massive blood loss.

The question was phrased in this manner:

"A patient comes into your ER with massive blood loss from [some sort of injury]. You evaluate him and admit him. You go to see him 24 hours later. Which of the following pairs of sets of vitals [BP/Cardiac Output/Pulse/etc] would you expect to find on admission and 24 hours later?"

The problem is, the correct answer assumed YOU DID NOTHING FOR THE PATIENT. We even get an explanation for each question missed as to why the correct answer is indeed correct, and the explanation went ahead and listed the kinds of things your body does when you lose a ton of blood out in the middle of nowhere, with no intervention.

So basically, this question assumed that, as doctors, we just stood there and did nothing. No IV's, no transfusions, no meds, no anything. Just put them in a bed and let physiology take its course.
 
Coming from GuyWhoDoesStuff, I can understand why assuming that you wouldn't do stuff bothered you.
 
We had an ICM question last year about some guy needing a heart cath immediately but not wanting to have the procedure done. You had to handle the situation accordingly. One of the responses was "Tell him he'll die if doesn't get the cath" and another was "Ask him why he objects to the procedure and discuss his feelings on the matter." This was from the patient relations (a.k.a. touchy-feely bullcrap) unit, so the "correct" answer was obvious. I know which one I'd really go with, though.

"Get your ass to the cath lab NOW!!!!"
 
Jumpin JAK STAT said:
"True or false: sevoflurane would take the paint off your car."

Very important information... highly relevant to medicine...
Click to expand...

Either there is a clone of our crazy pharm lecturer or you were one of the 14 lucky people at our lovely campus for the first 2 years 👍

And this was the first question I thought of when I saw this thread...that and the one about physical characteristics of pollen on the small section exam
 
Not from an exam, but from the anatomy BRS book. The question itself was pretty normal, but the way it was told was hillarious/kindeof perverted :scared: (recalled from my memory so not word by word correct)

A 3 year old boy have just finished his bath and is playing on the floor naked with his puppy when the puppy bites his penis. What vein drains the <insert part of penis>

Was that backstory reaaally necessary? 🙄
 
Punkn said:
Either there is a clone of our crazy pharm lecturer or you were one of the 14 lucky people at our lovely campus for the first 2 years 👍

And this was the first question I thought of when I saw this thread...that and the one about physical characteristics of pollen on the small section exam
Click to expand...

I seriously hope that lady doesn't even have siblings, let alone a clone!
 
easily the dumbest question i've had, way back in first semester of M1

Mismatch repair improves DNA integrity by:

a) 1-10 times
b) 10-100 times
c) 100-1000 times
d) 1000- 100,000 times
e) 100,000- 1,000,000 times

answer was D or E...don't really remember
 
We had a professor come to lecture dressed as a movie character for the last lecture of the course.

Well, come exam time, the last question of the exam was...

Professor X came to lecture on the last day dressed as which movie character?

At best, the question is a way to prove who was present at lecture, or to find out who talked to anyone who was there, or find out who read the noteservice notes, or a bunch of other things, and give an easy point to those people.

At worst, it's a waste of ink, paper and everyone's time.
 
How many sperm are there in one ejaculate ?

And one along the lines of who was in class or not (in undergrad)
Q:- The answer to this question is
A) Random letters
B) Random numbers
C) Random punctuation marks
D) Random other marks &%$#@ etc
 
I haven't had a lot of really dumb ones. The best I can think of is a biochem quiz in which one of the questions was "Who won the World Series last year?" The funny thing was that the right answer wasn't even one of the choices, since it was a recycled quiz.

What really gets my goat is the horribly worded questions and answer choices. Double negatives kill me.
 
Doctor Bob said:
We had a professor come to lecture dressed as a movie character for the last lecture of the course.

Well, come exam time, the last question of the exam was...

Professor X came to lecture on the last day dressed as which movie character?

At best, the question is a way to prove who was present at lecture, or to find out who talked to anyone who was there, or find out who read the noteservice notes, or a bunch of other things, and give an easy point to those people.

At worst, it's a waste of ink, paper and everyone's time.
Click to expand...

Was it Professor X ??
 
I've only had one such question that was along the lines of "which 3 movies must every med student see"

It was mentioned in class repeatedly by the guest lecturer, it was actually in the handout... and if you managed to gloss over both of those, all you had to do was pick the obvious right answer b/c they put clearly wrong choices as the other options. Really it was just nice free points.

The 3, in case you were wondering are:
-Patch Adams
-The Doctor
-Awakenings (I still need to see this one)
 
Depakote said:
I've only had one such question that was along the lines of "which 3 movies must every med student see"

It was mentioned in class repeatedly by the guest lecturer, it was actually in the handout... and if you managed to gloss over both of those, all you had to do was pick the obvious right answer b/c they put clearly wrong choices as the other options. Really it was just nice free points.

The 3, in case you were wondering are:
-Patch Adams
-The Doctor
-Awakenings (I still need to see this one)
Click to expand...

Patch Adams spoke at our school. He's bat**** crazy.

Edit: The movie really sucks too.
 
Last edited:
shwin said:
easily the dumbest question i've had, way back in first semester of M1

Mismatch repair improves DNA integrity by:

a) 1-10 times
b) 10-100 times
c) 100-1000 times
d) 1000- 100,000 times
e) 100,000- 1,000,000 times

answer was D or E...don't really remember
Click to expand...

I can do you one better than that. We had a question on our "medical genetics" exam a few weeks ago,

"Mitochondrial DNA makes up what percentage of the genome?
a) .05%
b) .005%
c) .0005%
d) .00005%"

Yes, not the hardest question ever, but how nitpicky can you get?
 
ChiDO said:
A 4th year from my school told me that he had to draw the scapula and name all the muscles attached during his ortho rotation while scrubed into a case.

I was also told to be prepared for any type of anatomy question during residency interviews..one guy had to draw the brachial plexus! 😱
Click to expand...

This is actually quite common. I wasn't allowed to draw it during a case, but I had to go through the brachial plexus, name all roots to branches and all nerves coming off and what they innervate (this was with a hand surgeon and chair of the department) in a brachial plexus case.

aggie08 said:
I don't remember the exact question, but it boiled down to HOX gene and what organism it was discovered in.

Fly was the answer.

Relevant.
Click to expand...

I had that same question in intro bio. Drosophila I believe. But I didn't have it in med school


In a clinical neuro exam, they asked us specific dosages of a medication to treat a condition. The dosages were all similar too.
 
osli said:
Don't recall any outright "dumb" questions, but I always had a sore spot for ones that were just written terribly. Such as "You're about to start thinking about preparing to have lifted a heavy box..." and then goes on to ask about some muscle physiology tidbit or another. Ugh.

I'm a bit amused at the discussion of some med schools "teaching students how to read CTs, MRIs..." previously. There's no way in hell any med school can teach its students how to read CTs or MRIs or plain films or whatever. They might can teach you how to identify basic anatomy landmarks on imaging, but that's a far far cry from being able to "read" the study.

We had tons of radiology lectures in years 1 and 2. About half were targeted at knowing which study to order for what screening or diagnostic situation, the other half learning how to approach different images, what was bright or dark, and how to identify anatomy. Very, very basic stuff.
Click to expand...
Amazing,

thank GOD other's feel the SAME EXACT way as I do about this topic as well. 👍
 
smq123 said:
Eh. It's not awfully memorable. It's an okay movie, by "medical movie" standards, but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who wasn't in medicine.
Click to expand...

The fact that he's a neurologist specializing in Parkinson's might have played a part in the recommendation.

He's a really nice and enthusiastic guy, if you met him the Patch Adams recommendation wouldn't really surprise you either.
 
shwin said:
easily the dumbest question i've had, way back in first semester of M1

Mismatch repair improves DNA integrity by:

a) 1-10 times
b) 10-100 times
c) 100-1000 times
d) 1000- 100,000 times
e) 100,000- 1,000,000 times

answer was D or E...don't really remember
Click to expand...

D) 10000 times


Here's my gripe:

142. What does _____(something never discussed in class or talked about on the syllabus) do with ___?

There's wayyy too many questions like these on our exams, and application of learned material only allows you to narrow down to two choices. After that, it's an imaginary coin flip 🙁
 
hoqhuuep said:
D) 10000 times


Here's my gripe:

142. What does _____(something never discussed in class or talked about on the syllabus) do with ___?

There's wayyy too many questions like these on our exams, and application of learned material only allows you to narrow down to two choices. After that, it's an imaginary coin flip 🙁
Click to expand...



It's frustrating to hear, but the answers are usually buried somewhere in the syllabus if you look hard enough. We have monthly focus groups with our profs (about 20 students) and one of them was griping about how some of the questions seem to be minutiae. The prof of course explained that the goal of the exams is to test overall understanding, but that they include questions that really check to see if you know EVERYTHING about a given topic. This includes asking about which specific subunit of MHC II makes physical contact with the CD4 molecule on Helper T cells.

They can't all be "gimme" questions. Otherwise everyone would get an A. Contrary to what society tries to condition us to believe, we are not, in fact, all as special and as fantastamazawesome as everyone else.
 
This includes asking about which specific subunit of MHC II makes physical contact with the CD4 molecule on Helper T cells.
Click to expand...
I just took that test 2 days ago, and I have no idea what the answer is. :laugh:
 
Last edited:
GuyWhoDoesStuff said:
It's frustrating to hear, but the answers are usually buried somewhere in the syllabus if you look hard enough. We have monthly focus groups with our profs (about 20 students) and one of them was griping about how some of the questions seem to be minutiae. The prof of course explained that the goal of the exams is to test overall understanding, but that they include questions that really check to see if you know EVERYTHING about a given topic. This includes asking about which specific subunit of MHC II makes physical contact with the CD4 molecule on Helper T cells.

They can't all be "gimme" questions. Otherwise everyone would get an A. Contrary to what society tries to condition us to believe, we are not, in fact, all as special and as fantastamazawesome as everyone else.
Click to expand...

I agree👍

But what I'm complaining about is the minutiae that isn't on the syllabus. I actually make myself memorize all of these little useless details, so it's a bit frustrating when you know that a certain factoid wasn't listed in the course notes or powerpoint slides. Oh well...
 
MilkmanAl said:
We had an ICM question last year about some guy needing a heart cath immediately but not wanting to have the procedure done. You had to handle the situation accordingly. One of the responses was "Tell him he'll die if doesn't get the cath" and another was "Ask him why he objects to the procedure and discuss his feelings on the matter." This was from the patient relations (a.k.a. touchy-feely bullcrap) unit, so the "correct" answer was obvious. I know which one I'd really go with, though.

"Get your ass to the cath lab NOW!!!!"
Click to expand...

lol.
Al, that Q showed up this year as well
 
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