Question-Handling Strategies

Based on exams I've taken, some interesting trends have become apparent. For those questions that take only a single answer, usually two or three of the answers are obviously incorrect, and two of the answers are possible of course, only one can be correct. Unless the answer leaps out at you, begin the process of answering by eliminating those answers that are most obviously wrong. A word of caution: If the answer seems too obvious, reread the question to look for a trick. Often those are the ones you are most likely to get wrong. If you've done your homework for an exam, no valid information should be completely new to you. In that case, unfamiliar or bizarre terminology most likely indicates a bogus answer.

As you work your way through the exam, budget your time by making sure that you've completed one quarter of the questions one quarter of the way through the exam period and three quarters of them three quarters of the way through the exam. This ensures that you'll have time to go through them all. As you know, there will be 60 70 questions to answer in a 90-minute time frame. That gives you an average of a minute to a minute-and-a-half for each question. The simulation questions will probably take longer than the multiple-choice questions, so give yourself ample time.

Be cautious about changing your answers and second-guessing yourself. Many times the first selection is right and changing your answer might cause you to miss questions that were originally answered correctly.

If you aren't finished when 95% of the time has elapsed, use the last few minutes to guess your way through the remaining questions. Remember that guessing is potentially more valuable than not answering because blank answers are always wrong, but a guess might turn out to be right. If you don't have a clue about any of the remaining questions, pick answers at random or choose all As, Bs, and so on. The important thing is to submit an exam for scoring that has an answer for every question.