Specific Question Styles

Specific Test-taking Techniques 

True And False Questions 

• 1. Look for absolute qualifiers such as: always, all, every, never, none. If one is present, the question will probably be false. 

  2. Look for relative qualifiers such as: often, frequently, or seldom. These will probably be true. 

  3. If any part of the question is false, the whole question is false. 

  4. If you don’t know the answer, guess; you have a 50-50 chance of being correct.

Matching Questions

• 1. Make sure you understand the directions for matching the items on the lists. For instance, can you use an item more than once? 

  2. Answer long matching lists in a systematic way, such as checking off those items already used.

  3. Do the matches you know first. 

  4. Anticipate the answer, then look for it. 

  5. Use information obtained from other questions and options. 

  6. Strike out items on the answer list that are out of place or incongruous. 

  7. If you don’t know the correct matches, guess. 

Short Answer Questions

• 1. Write no more than necessary. 

  2. With sentence completion or fill-in questions, make sure your answers are grammatically correct.

  3. Make sure your response makes sense. 

Multiple Choice Questions

• 1. Anticipate the answer, then look for it. 

  2. Consider all the alternatives. 

  3. Relate options against each other. 4. Balance options against each other. 

  4. Use logical reasoning. 

  5. Use information obtained from other questions and options. 

  6. If the correct answer is not immediately obvious, eliminate alternatives that are obviously absurd, silly, or incorrect. 

  7. Compare each alternative with the item of the question and with other alternatives. 

  8. Whenever two options are identical, then both must be incorrect. 

  9. If any two options are opposites, then at least one may be eliminated. 

  10. Look for options that do not match the item grammatically. These will be incorrect. 

Tips for Taking Open-book Tests

• 1. Make sure your notes are complete and well-organized.

  2. Prepare for an open-book best as carefully as other tests. 

  3. Prepare organizational summaries of the course using textbooks and notes. 

  4. Do not use extensive quotations. The teacher knows the book, but wants to know what you know. 

Tips for Taking Essay Tests

• 1. Determine the criteria that will be used to judge your answers. 

  2. Read the entire test through before starting. 

  3. Budget your time according to the point value of each question. 

  4. Use scrap paper to jot down ideas, organize your answers, and remember details (dates, formulas). 

  5. Use the question, reworded, as your introductory statement. 

  6. Note whether you are to define, list, or compare.

  7. Organize your answer by expressing your main idea and then using supporting facts and details to prove your statement. 

  8. Use facts to support your arguments. 

  9. Use the technical language of the subject. 

  10. Use examples, charts, and other illustrations to make your answers more exact. 

  11. Unless there is a penalty for guessing, answer all questions even if you are not sure. 

  12. Use partial answers and outlines if you are not sure or are running out of time. 

  13. Proofread your answers for clarity, grammar, spelling, punctuation and legibility.

Sample Essays

As mentioned before, a well written, organized essay often gets a higher grade than its opposite. Read each of these examples and notice how they differ. Each essay was written in response to this question on a psychology final exam: Describe the stages involved in the memory process 

Memory is important to everybody’s life. Memory has special ways to help you get a better collection of things and ideas. Psychologists believe that memory has three stages: encoding, storage, and retrieval. 

In the encoding state, you are putting facts and ideas into a code, usually words, and filing them away in your memory. Encoding involves preparing information for storage in memory. 

The second stage of memory is storage. It is the stage that most people call memory. It involves keeping information so that it is accessible for use later in time. How well information is stored can be affected by old information already stored and newer information that is added later. 

The third step in memory is retrieval, which means the ability to get back information that is in storage. There are two types of retrieval--recognition and recall. In recognition, you have to be able to identify the correct information from several choices. In recall, you have to pull information directly from your memory without any help or clues. When you write an essay test, you are using the recall type of retrieval. 

Memory is very complicated in how it works. It involves remembering things that are stored in your mind and being able to pull them out when you want to remember them. When you pull information out of your memory it is called retrieval. How well you can remember something is affected by how you keep the information in your mind and how you put it in. When keeping or storing information, you have to realize that this information will be affected by old information already in your memory. Putting information in your memory is called encoding, and it means that you store facts and ideas in word form in your memory. Information stored in your memory can also be influenced by information that you added to your memory later. 

There are two ways you can retrieve information. You can either recognize it or recall it. When you recognize information, you are able to spot the correct information among other information. When you recall information, you have to pull information out of your head. Recall is what you have to do when you write an essay exam. 

Example 1 is the better essay. Can you see why this is true?

Sources:

• • Modified from Test-Taking Strategies: Preparing for Tests Taking Tests Reducing Test Anxiety from Pellissippi State Community College's Student Support Center

  • With points from Test-taking Strategies from Brigham Young University's Academic Success Center