7 Tips and Strategies for Answering Multiple Choice Questions | Test Taking Strategies

Thanks for stopping by,
this is 2 minute classroom.

And today I'm going to give you
seven tips for multiple choice exams.

And if you want to further develop your
study and test taking skills,

I've linked some books I recommend
and a study playlist in the description.

Now on to the tips,

we'll start with the basic ones and then
move on to the more advanced tips.

But all of these tips are relevant.

Tip number one is to read through
the instructions carefully.

I'm always shocked at how many students

jump right into the test
without reading the instructions

and maybe you're one of them.

There is often valuable information
in the instructions

about how to take the test
and what you are allowed to do.

So read it first.

After reading the instructions,
you can move on to tip number two,

which is to answer the easy questions first.

This is a solid tip for nearly every type of test.

It provides an overview of the test

and gives you several small victories

to boost your confidence right
at the beginning of the test.

Tip number three is to
answer the question in your mind

before reading the answer options.

Use a piece of paper or your hand
to cover the answer options

You may have to be a little more creative
If it's a digital test.

Then with the answers covered,

read the question and formulate

your best idea of the answer in your mind

before looking at the answers.

So, why do this rather
than just reading the options?

Because you won't get confused
by the answer choices

and thinking two or three of the options
sound like good answers.

If one of the options is similar

to the answer you came to in your head,

then you can answer faster
and with more confidence.

Try it out.

Tip number four is to read every answer option.

Similar to the instructions,

many students skip this step
on at least a few questions

often to their demise.

Because most multiple choice test questions

want you to find the most correct answer,

there may be multiple correct answers.

So if you stop at the first one, you may
not see the most correct one.

Even if you think you've found the answer,
read them all.

Tip number five is
to use the process of elimination.

When you come to a question
that you don't know the answer to

you can increase your odds by
eliminating answers you know to be incorrect.

Physically cross them out if you can.

If you can narrow it down to two or three answers

you'll increase your odds for guessing
correctly from the remaining answer choices.

I'll do a separate video about guessing strategies
for multiple choice tests and link it below.

Because it's a separate video all by itself.

And if you're finding these tips valuable,
consider subscribing

because you'll likely find a lot more
value from my future content.

Tip number six is specifically for
all the above type questions.

You don't actually have to know
if all of the above answers are correct.

You just need to know if more than one are correct,

for example,

if the question has five possible answers,

the last of which is "all of the above"

and you know
the first and third answers are correct,

but are uncertain about the other two,

you can confidently answer all of the above.

Tip number seven is to answer every question.

I was amazed as a teacher to see students
not answer multiple choice questions.

I understand that you may not know the answer,

but you can certainly
write or circle a random answer.

There can also be a lot of strategy to guessing

which I'll make a separate video on.

The only time you don't want to guess is
when you lose points for wrong answers,

in my experience, the vast majority of tests
award you zero points for a wrong answer,

but on certain tests, you'll lose
points for answering incorrectly.

So make sure
you know the test before you guess.

Now watch this video on last minute test
taking strategies that will work

and this video of mine which
YouTube thinks that you'll find relevant.

Thanks for watching
and I'll catch you next time.