What to do when you think you see an an 'Experimental' question?

[psychobob]

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I've heard that 10-20% of the 338 questions will be 'experimental'. Are they so incredibly difficult that they're easy to differentiate from questions that will be counted? If you do recognize one, is it better not to waste any time thinking about it, guessing and moving on?

 

[mudphudwannabe]

Yes, there are experimental questions, but you will have no idea which ones they are. The best thing, especially knowing that some questions won't contribute to your score, is not to stress too much over any one particular questions. Just give every question your best effort, even if it ends up being a guess. There's no sense wasting time on a question you can't figure out, experimental or not, so don't be afraid to make some guesses. If you can narrow down the choices to 2 or 3, all the better.

But don't go guessing willy nilly every time you come to a tough question - if you need more time to figure it out, mark it and you can come back to it if you have extra time after you've answered all the questions.

Oh, and 20% sounds way too high. I heard there were about 10% experimental questions.

 

[Law2Doc]

I've heard that 10-20% of the 338 questions will be 'experimental'. Are they so incredibly difficult that they're easy to differentiate from questions that will be counted? If you do recognize one, is it better not to waste any time thinking about it, guessing and moving on?

You will never know which ones are experimental. Some get thrown out because they are too hard that nobody gets them right. Some are the other extreme too easy that they don't end up being kept. The majority are simply questions that will be added to subsequent tests but are being tested to see if they are appropriately gauged. Meaning they will be about the same difficulty as the other questions on the test. So you will have no way to know which are which. Some you might suspect, but more often than not they will look and feel like any other question. So assume none are experimental and try to allot appropriately equivalent time to every question.

 

[lord_jeebus]

I'm pretty sure I identified an experimental question because there was an error in the answer choices:

A. X (alternative name for Y)
B. Y (alternative name for X)

The question itself was easy so I wouldn't assume that experimental = difficult

Another thing I noticed on my test was recurrent questions in separate blocks testing the same concept in very similar but slightly modified ways. I guessed that this was experimental as well.

Bottom line, there is no way to prove that a question is experimental and you should answer them all to the best of your ability.

 

[psychobob]

So don't think about whether the Q is experimental or not. Just answer each Q to the best of my ability. Sounds simple. 🙂 Thanks.

 

[MattD]

Don't try to outsmart the test. It isn't trying to outsmart you. The test is straightforward, do you know the answer or not sort of test. You will not be able to ID the experimental questions, and even if you thought you did, are you confident enough to risk your score by just guessing on the ones you think are experimental without thinking about them??

Another thing I noticed on my test was recurrent questions in separate blocks testing the same concept in very similar but slightly modified ways. I guessed that this was experimental as well.

I noticed that as well, I think I had like 5 wegener's questions on my test. I didn't necessarily think they were experimental though, I just assumed it happened because of the nature of the test generator (350 questions randomly selected from 150,000-ish).

 

[DrFraud]

When you take the test for real, try your best to answer every question as well as you can without taking too much time. Don't sweat the hard questions.

Any other approach is Voodoo.

 

[oreosandsake]

put "B" for psychoBoB

Just kidding 😀