School Tips: Test Taking Strategies

After a busy week of exams and requirements, I managed to breathe again in to the world of blogging. Now, I'm going to share with you some tips/tricks/giveaway points during exams that could really help you in taking your tests.

ON TAKING TRUE/ FALSE QUESTIONS

True or False questions are considered staple in every exam, may it be in your quiz or even in the local board exams. The good thing about these exams is that the probability of getting the correct answer is quite high at 50:50 ratio. Here are some tips is acing this type of test:

• Always think that absolute questions tend to be FALSE. Example of which are, "All dogs eat meat" or "An increase in blood pressure is always caused by hypertension". Words such as "always", "all" and "every" serve as giveaway to these type of questions.

• Modest questions tend to be TRUE. Similar to the item stated above, terms that  doesn't denote generality have a high probability that they are true. Examples are, "In most cases, dogs are carnivores" or "Not all increases in blood pressure are caused by hypertension "

• Read the directions. Will you write T/F, A/B or the whole word itself?

ON TAKING MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS

• On taking multiple choice questions, always remember to do CANCELLATION first before arriving at an answer. This technique doesn't only limit the number of choices, but also lessen errors due to carelessness in the long run.

• Always note for the word "EXCEPT" at the end of every question

• Always note similar choices because there is high probability that one of them is the correct answer. For example the question is, "What is the side effect of the drug, Digoxin?". Then the choices would be, "a) increase in heart contractility", "b) decrease in heart contractility", "c) Increase blood volume". Clearly, choices A and B are similar, so there is high probability that one of them is the answer.