A week or two before the test is scheduled to be given, ask your instructor some questions about the test. Ask what kinds of items will make up the test. What per cent will be multiple choice? What per cent will be matching? Will there be any word fill in? What per cent will be true—false? Check and see if any samples of previous exams are available. These kinds of questions are perfectly legitimate and they may give you some useful clues for study review.
Use Your Pre-test Time for Review and Not New Learning
Frisk your assigned readings and complete the underlining of your different notes a full week before the exam. Then begin reciting and memorizing as many of the details and facts as you can remember.
How You Can Prepare For Recognition items
On most of the objective test items you will have a large number of recognition items. For example, if the item of the multiple choice question says:
The President in office at the end of World War II was: (and the choices are)
a. Hoover b. Eisenhower c. Roosevelt d. Kennedy e. Truman
All you have to do is recognize that Truman was President; you do not have to try to recall his name or spell it correctly as you would if you were asked, "Who was the president at the end of World War II?" It's easier to recognize than it is to recall. This does not mean that you should not use recitation and memorization. Recognition is based on factual and informational knowledge, which is best learned by recitation and memorization. For an objective exam, you need to study and review all of your material, emphasizing details, many more details than you might memorize for an essay exam.
How You Can Decide Which Facts and What Information To Study
Names are important; names of people, places, processes, and theories appear frequently on objective exams. When you learn the names of people, also note what their main contribution was. Make a special point of always knowing the names of the people who have conducted important research studies. Know what the research findings were too but be able to recognize the research study by the last names of the researchers. In most modern fields of study, research is referred to by the names of the people who have conducted it. Even if you know the study well, you will lose points if you cannot recognize the names of the people who did it. If four or five people were involved in the study, remember just the name of the most important researcher. If you can't figure out who that is, ask your instructor.
When you memorize names of places, also remember the reasons why these particular places are important. When you memorize the names of different processes, also make a point of remembering the steps in the process and the order of those steps. The rationale for a theory, its major proponents and its key ideas are things to keep in mind when remembering theories.
Numbers also are often important. High and low point numbers which indicate trends on graphs and charts should be memorized. The number of subjects involved in different experiments may be important, especially the numbers involved in the findings of the experiment. If any numbers are given in your text which you feel are related to an important fact or event or trend, use recitation to memorize them and associate them with the event, the experiment or the trend.
Dates are also worth remembering, especially as they relate to people and events. Textbooks in many subject matter areas will have a chapter devoted to historical milestones. Other sections of these texts will indicate dates related to more recent events or discoveries. Remember them. In other cases, the sequence of events (which came first, second, etc.) is important to know even though exact dates are not given.
Definitions of the special vocabulary of the course should be memorized. Illustrations or examples which clarify the definitions should be learned. Sometimes an example is given and you are asked to recognize which definition best fits the example. If you know different illustrations or examples of the term defined, you will be in a better position to answer questions on the meaning of the word. Sometimes you are asked to recognize the one difference between two things or ideas which are alike in most other respects. When studying, it's wise to look for similarities and differences between things or ideas. These likes and differences make good objective items. They frequently take the following form:
The major difference between ______ and _______is:
a.
b.c.
d.
e.
What Three Things You Can Do to Study For an Objective Test
With an objective test, don't bother to try to write down your guess as to what form the multiple choice or matching True-False items will take. Instead, spend your time doing three things. First, identify the important topics, ideas, and supporting facts in your notes and in your underlined books. Second, use the recitation method of reading your central ideas by covering the material and asking yourself “W hat are the important ideas here?" Third, use the memory devices in the learning and memory chapters to memorize the important details.
Use the evening before the test and even the hours before the test for review, going over the memory associations you have used to remember key facts. Use this last-minute review to go over material you already know and understand. Review the high points in your notes which give you the feeling "I know this pretty well." Don't try to review everything in the last hour or two. The impossibility of such a task might depress you.
TIPS ON TAKING OBJECIIVE EXAMS
In the following section, you will find several useful ideas and shortcuts in taking an objective examination.
Bring Materials You May Need
Have two sharpened soft lead pencils such as a "number one" lead electrographic or IBM pencil. Do not use a ballpoint or other pen. Some tests are scored by electric impulse through the graphite on the paper and ballpoints do not contain graphite. In many courses the instructor will provide you with special pencils. Do not use a pen even if it is permissible, because you cannot clearly erase most pen markings and you may mistakenly fill in the wrong blank and then wish to change an answer.
The exam itself is usually mimeographed or dittoed. It may contain typing or other errors. If you notice something that appears to be an error, simply raise your hand and wait until the instructor comes over and then whisper your question about the possible error.
The separate answer sheet will usually have five spaces for your answer. The spaces are numbered I, 2, 3, 4, 5 or lettered a, b, c, d, e. True-False items usually take space 1 or a for True answers and space 2 or b for False answers. If this is not clearly indicated in the directions for the True-False part, ask your instructor where he wants these answers. Unless it is indicated, you may have to put your completion or fill-in items answers on the mimeographed test. When in doubt ask the instructor. He is there to help you better understand the exam.
Get an Overview of the Whole Exam
Quickly check through to see how many of each kind objective test questions there are on the test. Then read the directions to each section to get a clear picture of what is expected of you.
How You Can Decide About Guessing on The Test
If there is no correction for guessing, plan to answer every item, even those about which you know absolutely nothing. If there is a correction, ask how much it is. You may or may not get an answer to this question because even the instructor may not have decided yet. Ask anyway. It may be important. For example, there are 100 True-False items and the correction formula is Rights minus Wrong. You get fifty right and you try and guess the other fifty but miss ad of those you guess at. Your score is fifty minus fifty = zero! On the other hand, if you try fifty and get them all right but do not try the other fifty, your score is fifty minus zero = 50. If in this same test there was no correction for guessing, you could guess at all of them and still get your 50 right. In such a test, if the instructor simply counts the number right and takes off nothing for those wrong, you can feel free to guess at all of them.
On a multiple choice test, the correction might be R - 1/5 W. If you had 100 items, got 50 right, tried and missed another thirty-five and left fifteen blank because you were very unsure of them, your score would be 50 - 1/5 (35) = 50 - 7 = 43.
Those Left Blank are not Counted as Wrong Answers
Beware of becoming too cautious. When some students hear that a correction for guessing is used in a test, they freeze up and become very cautious, answering only those items that they are absolutely certain of. This is a mistake which can give you a very low score. The guessed correction is used to stop wild guessing where the person guesses even though he hasn't the slightest idea about whether he is right or wrong. A good rule of thumb on a multiple choice question is that if four out of five of the choices look correct, and there is a correction for guessing, don t guess on that question. However, if two choices out of five look good and a third is an outside possibility - try it. You have a pretty good chance of being right. It’s a fairly safe gamble even with the correction for guessing.
How to Pace Yourself To Help You During the Exam
Quickly go over the directions to each part of the exam and notice the number of points that are given for each subpart - i.e., the multiple choice, the True-False, the matching and the fill-in.
To pace yourself you will have to do some quick arithmetic. If you have fifty questions to be answered in fifty minutes, you should be spending an average of one minute on each one if they are all alike, e.g., multiple choice. In actuality, some of them will take half a minute and others may take as much as three minutes. Don't bother to check your watch after each item, but do check it about every tenth item. If you have spent twenty minutes answering the first ten items, you are going too slowly and win need to speed up and spend less time on the tough ones if you are going to finish the test in the time allotted.
The pace that you set depends somewhat on the kind of items you have on the test. If a fifty-item test to be done in fifty minutes has twenty-five multiple choice items and twenty-five True-False items, you should plan to spend about 2/3 of your time on the multiple choice because the True-False ordinarily take much less time to do. However, if each of the items is worth one point apiece then do the True-False first because you can pick up more points per unit of time.
Do the Easiest Items First
Another factor is which items are personally easiest for you. If the multiple choice items are generally easier, by all means do them first. If the True-False are easiest, start with them even though they are numbered twenty-six through fifty on your answer sheet. On most objective tests each item is worth one point, so get all of the easy ones that you know for sure taken care of first.
Read the Directions Very Carefully
When you actually begin a section of the test, read the directions very carefully so that you clearly understand what's to be done. Sometimes students are in such a hurry to begin the exam items that they simply assume the directions and don't bother reading them carefully. This can cost you points.
Be Cautious in Reading Through All of the Choices Before You Answer the Item
If you recognize the first choice (a) to be true, it may still be the wrong answer, because some instructors use the following pattern to their choices:
a.
b.c.
d. All of the above
e. Both a and c, but not b.
Be Careful to Read the Negatives
If the stem or first part of the multiple choice question reads "Which of the following was not a part of T. Roosevelt's campaign platform:" and you don't notice the "not", you have just lost another point on the exam. If you find that four out of five of the choices look right, reread the item. You may have misread it and not noticed the "not".
Similarly, be careful about reading double negatives such as "Which of the following is not inconsistent with your lecturer's views?" Read these a couple of times until you are certain what they mean. If you don't decipher them, you lose points.
What Special Words You Need to Watch Out For as You Read the Test Questions
There are usually one or two words in every multiple choice and True-False item which are the central or crucial words. If you leave them out or misread them, the meaning of the sentence changes. Watch for these key words. A true-false item which reads "Success in college is frequently related to study habits," would be answered differently if it read "Success in college is seldom related to study habits." The meaning would change again if we put the word "always" in place of "seldom." These qualifiers, as they are called, are central to the meaning of the True-False or multiple choice item. Always look for them. By identifying and concentrating on the qualifiers you will be better able to come up with the correct answer to the item. Some of the qualifiers to look for are value words such as "better," "very well,""best," "crucial," "finest," and other such adjectives. Other qualifiers include "partially," "primarily," "mainly," "generally," "occasionally," "usually," "frequently," "sometimes," "seldom," "always," "never," etc., which are adverbs. Prepositions, such as "except," may also be important. By watching carefully for the key adjectives, adverbs and prepositions in objective test questions, you will be able to more correctly interpret the meaning of the sentence and will be in a better position to pick out the best answer.
Eliminate the Obviously Wrong Choices
If it's all right for you to write on the mimeographed test booklet, make a point of crossing out the dearly incorrect choices. For example, by crossing off b, c, and d, you can more clearly concentrate on the two choices, a and e, that are left. Sometimes you are told not to make marks on the mimeographed test. In that case simply make your light cross out marks on the answer sheet itself. However, remember to erase any cross out marks before you hand in your answer sheet. If the test is scored electronically, your stray marks may register as guessed answers. You might lose several points because only one answer is supposed to be given for each test item and your crosscut marks may make it appear that you have marked two or three choices.
Don’t Cheat
Sometimes students will try to cheat on a multiple choice exam by deliberately darkening two or three choices instead of one out of every five. This is foolish because the papers are scanned before they are put in the machine for scoring, and many machines will give two scores: the number right, and the number darkened in. It you get 80 out of 100 right but have darkened in 300, you are in trouble.
How You Can Keep Your Attention Focused on The Test
Devote all of your attention to the question that you happen to be working on at that moment. If you are reading question 8 and find that you are slipping down and reading parts of 9 and 10, catch yourself by mentally saying "I better forget about 9 and 10 and concentrate on 8. What would be a good answer for number 8? "
Don't be sidetracked by continuing to think about a terribly unfair or insidiously stupid question you have just tried. If you continue to dwell on it, you will simply lose time and be less able to concentrate on the questions following it. Remember, each item is only worth one point.
Forget the bad one; at least some of the others will be better. Concentrate on them!
Don't Spend Too Much Time on Any One Question
It is easy to become fascinated by a very difficult item and spend five or more minutes on it, thereby getting behind on the rest of the test. Circle or check the number of the tough item with a light pencil mark on the answer sheet. Then come back to it after you have finished the rest of the test.
How to Keep From Losing Your Place on The Test
Temporarily skipping tough items is an excellent idea, but it has one drawback. Whenever you skip around, you run the risk of carelessly losing your place on the answer sheet and marking in the wrong column. For example, if you answer items 1 through 22, then skip numbers 23 and 24, and then answer 25 through 31 and skip 32, etc., you can easily lose your place and put down your answer on the wrong numbered answer space.
There is one way to catch this skipping mistake without rereading your entire exam. Check your answer blank numbers. If you have two answers for one item, you may have mixed up your numbers and put one answer in the wrong blank space. If item 44 has two answers, b and d, reread item 44 and see which answer it was you wanted. Let's say the answer you wanted was b. Then reread number 45. If the answer you wanted for 45 was d and you have c darkened, you can guess that you were reading item 45 and putting the answer d in the wrong place, i.e., number 44. Then read 46; the c answer you had down for 45 may have been meant for item 46. If this is the case, spot check all of the items past 46 to see if the right answers are darkened. If they are not, you should quickly correct the errors. Answering on the wrong number space is a very easy way to fail an objective exam. Luckily, this error is easily avoided by making a point of checking the number of the question you are answering and the number on the answer sheet about every 10th item. Then, if they don't match, you can find your error within the last 10 items rather than checking through the whole test.
Keep Your instructor's Emphasis in Mind
Always think of how your lecturer or the author of your textbook would answer the question you are trying to answer. This is especially true of opinion kinds of questions on which you and the authorities may not agree. If you think: "The instructor would say ‘a’ is the right answer, but I really feel that 'c' is better and I am prepared to defend my opinion"—forget it! All that you have done is lost another point on the test. Bring it up in the discussion group after the test, but put down "a" during the test.
What You Can Look For in Different Test Answer Patterns
Multiple choice items usually say "choose the best answer." Be careful! Several, if not all, of the choices may be true, but one is stated in a better way or has more information than the others. Weigh the qualifiers and systematically eliminate the less "true" answers. Frequently, the longest and most involved answer is the best. Often it will be a word-for-word statement lifted from the lecture or the textbook. Be cautious and read carefully because this is not true of every multiple choice question. However, it happens frequently enough to be a useful pattern.
Fill-in or completion items are frequently used for names and definitions. Knowing the specialized vocabulary of the subject can often be a big help with fill-ins. Fill-in questions will often have more than one acceptable answer. If you cannot think of the exact word you need to fill in the blank, write in a synonym and you will probably get partial or even full credit.
Matching questions are of two types: those in which you are asked to match only one answer into each answer blank, and those in which you may have from one to four different answers into a single answer blank. If only one answer is put in each blank you can sometimes cross off the answers you have already used and flip a coin for the last two answers.
True-False items are false if they have two ideas and one idea is true and the other is false. Beware of negatives on true-false items. If you miss the "not," you miss the item. True-false questions with "always" and “never” are frequently false. However, on occasion they may be true, so read the question carefully before answering. If a true-false item states "all" of something is the case, do not misinterpret the "all" as meaning “most.” Ask yourself if there are any exceptions to the "all" statement. You need think of only one exception to prove an "all" type item false. Don't expect an equal number of true and false answers. Many instructors will deliberately give more of one than of the other.
How You Can Decide Whether or Not to Change An Answer
When you go back over the tough items which you have already tentatively answered, be very cautious about changing that answer. Look it over again, but if you are still so undecided that it could go either way, then don't change it. If you have thought of some new information that gives a new clue as to the right answer, a change is needed. Also, if you have simply misread the question the first time and now see that the answer you gave is obviously wrong, make the change. However, if it's still a toss of a coin, leave it alone! You are more likely to lose points by changing it.
How You Can Add Finishing Touches to The Exam
When you are about to finish, check to see that your full name, class number and class hour are on your answer sheet. Erase any extraneous marks you may have made on the answer sheet. Check to see that all of your marks are heavy and black. Make sure that you have marked one and only one answer for each of the multiple choice and true-false items. Be certain that all of the matching blanks contain answers and that you have tried all of the fill-ins. Check every tenth answer to see if you were answering the right number on the answer sheet. This is done by quickly rereading every tenth item, refreshing your memory as to which answer you chose, and checking your answer sheet to be certain that you darkened in the right space. If, at the end of the test period, you suddenly realize that your numbering is completely off, tell your instructor and he will give you a few minutes to make corrections in your answers.
HOW YOU CAN OVERCOME TEST ANXIETY
One way to avoid test anxiety is to be well prepared. If you follow all of the suggestions for test preparation in this chapter, and practice the study habits covered in the rest of this book, you will be able to face a test with confidence. However, if you put everything off until the last couple of days and then cram to try to pass the exam, you win probably feel anxious or even panicky during the exam.
Get Totally Involved in Answering the Items
Put yourself completely into the task of answering each item. Weigh the item, evaluate the possible answers, measure your pacing, systematically answer the item, etc. If you occupy your thoughts with doing all of these things, you will be too busy during the exam to worry about failing the test.
Keep a Positive Outlook
After looking at a few of the more difficult items, you may begin to feel discouraged and make it worse than it really is. Your negative thought pattern may go as follows: "This is so hard. I don't know this stuff. The items are so confusing. I just know that I'm going to fail!" Unless you quickly change this pattern of thought, you may convince yourself that failure is on the way and actually cause it to happen. What you want to be able to do is to quickly analyze a test question, make a careful judgment and pick the best answer. A positive attitude can get you moving instead of simply sitting and worrying. Say to yourself "Man, this is one rough exam, but it's rough for everybody. I better skip over the rough ones and answer the ones I know first. Even if I'm sure of only twenty of the fifty answers, if I keep my cool and carefully check each answer, I can probably do as well as the rest of the class." This second attitude leads to action which will help you pass the test.
Have Reasonable Expectations of Yourself
Don't set your expectations too high. It takes a while to become accustomed to college courses and their tests. As you learn more and get more practice in taking tests, you will improve. Keep in mind that it's very common for a student who has done A work in high school to-have difficulty getting even C's in some of his college courses. This doesn't mean that he is not bright. It simply means that the competition is greater and the grading system more difficult in college. Getting C's and even an occasional D at first doesn't mean you should give up and drop out or even get discouraged. Give yourself a couple of semesters to get accustomed to college. As your study habits improve, you will find that your grades also will improve. Expect to get C's and some D's at first until you learn the ropes. If you do better than C's, wonderful; there's no problem.
Sometimes parents' expectations are too high. When you realize that you might not get that "A" that you know they want and expect, the uncomfortable thoughts of a possible negative reaction from your folks sets in and makes things even worse. Let's face it, if you come home with a bunch of C's the world isn't going to end. Anyone with a C average can graduate from college. You might explain to your folks how good you feel because you didn't get all F's. If they bug you too much, have them read this section. Less pressure from home means a more comfortable test performance and often a better test performance.
Ridding Yourself of Fear During the Exam
A certain amount of nervousness is to be expected and accepted. However, some students allow their fears to snowball until they are unable to concentrate or read carefully. They become confused and practically immobilized. If you feel that your fears are increasing and beginning to interfere, you can stop them in their tracks. Stop reading the test for a few moments. Put your pen or pencil down, make a fist and squeeze as tightly as you can. Squeeze so very, very tightly that your fingers almost hurt. Then take a very deep breath and release your grip, as you slowly release your breath. Next, repeat the tight fist and deep breaths four or five more times. As you release each long breath and release your tight grip, think: "That's better! Easy does it." Then go back to the exam with the thought "Everybody is probably having trouble with this lousy exam. Now, what's my best approach to this next question? If anyone asks what you are doing, simply tell them: “I’m taking a breather.” It only takes a couple of minutes and it can settle your nerves enough for you to regain your composure and begin attacking the test question by question.
Objective tests require lots of serious study and memorizing. Beyond that, knowing some tips on taking objective tests, such as asking about corrections for guessing, being able to scan the test for point values and types of questions, reading directions carefully, pacing yourself, knowing how to avoid test anxiety, and other tips from this chapter will be helpful ways to improve your objective test grades.
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