Every single time I say the phrase âI was classically trained in the art of multiple choice testsâ everyone in the room whoâs not a millennial laughs at my joke while all the other millennials in the room immediately look like they just walked in on a funeral by accident.
teach me please
Why? It has nothing to do with the real world and Iâm mad that the school system taught me how to take multiple choice tests rather than write a report for a job or properly research what issues are important when deciding who to vote for in an election. Or like⌠accurate history. You know. Actual stuff you need to know to be a person.
im currently stuck in the school system and I want cheat codes
Okay, I completely understand wanting to know the actual stuff, I want to know those things too, and those are things im working on learning. but to be able to get to the information that tells me these things I need to survive this hellhole of a system and im bad at tests, which means i dont survive very well.Â
Okay fine.
Read the entire question twice to look for tricky wording. If youâre allowed to write on it circle or underline words like NOT or EXCEPT or other things your brain might skip over. This will make it less likely youâll skip over them.
Read all the answers before answering. Sometimes the wrong answers are so stupid you donât even have to work out the problem or try to remember the thing.
If the entire test is about the same subject (Colonial America for example) answers might be found in previous questions. Like question #6 might ask who wrote Common Sense. You might remember that back in question one it said âIn Common Sense by Thomas Paineâ and thereâs your answer. This happens a lot more often than youâd think.
If you donât know the answer cross out the answers you know are incorrect. If there are four answers but you know one of them is wrong your odds of guessing right just went up from 25% to 33%. If you can eliminate two answers then you have a 50/50 chance of getting it right.
If you canât eliminate any answers at all guess C. The placement of correct answers isnât completely random and C is the answer slightly more often than other answers. If you guess randomly your odds of getting the answer right actually goes down.
Read study guides and take practice tests. Actually read them. Especially if theyâre written by the same person who wrote the test youâll be taking. Youâll be more likely to pick up on their quirks and what kind of trick questions they write if you use the study material. Youâll also know what to study and what to leave.
For sections where thereâs a list of words you have to match to definitions read the words first. Youâre probably more likely to know the definition of a word then the word that goes with a definition. (or time period or math method or whatever). Answer the ones you know and leave the ones you donât until youâre completely done with that section. Then look at your remaining words and definitions and match them to the ones that sound the least ridiculous.
Donât take a test on an empty stomach unless youâre fasting for religious reasons. I donât care if you havenât eaten breakfast in twenty years. Youâre gonna eat something before you take that test.
Remember that taking multiple choice tests is a skill that not everyone is naturally good at and itâs a skill that means absolutely nothing in the real world. So however you do on this test doesnât dictate your worth as a person.
As someone who is also classically trained in the art of multiple choice test, I can confirm
Yeah I learned all this shit too. And like while most things public school teaches you is such fucking bullshit, this is actually true.
