Test Tactics Evaluating Answer Choices
On a multiple-choice test, the test maker's job is to create three wrong answers for every correct one — and skilled test makers make some of those wrong answers look very good. Understanding how to evaluate answer choices systematically gives you a significant advantage.
Answer on the Basis of the Test, Not Prior Knowledge
When answering test questions, base your answer solely on the information in the question. The test does not require prior knowledge of the job. If a test question describes a stove fire being extinguished with a fire hose when you know a portable extinguisher would be standard practice — answer based on what the question says, not what you know.
Tell yourself the answer before you look at the choices. When the question is specific enough, answering in your head before reading the four choices protects you from being distracted by plausible-looking wrong answers that appear before the correct one.
Sort Answers Into Three Categories
As you read each answer choice, mark it T (True), F (False), or ? (Uncertain). Don't write in the answer area — mark to the side. Stop reading a choice as soon as you are certain it is false. When you've evaluated all four choices, you should have one T, and your work is done. If you have two T's or a T and a ?, think carefully before choosing. Ignore anything you've already marked F.
Negative questions — questions asking which answer is NOT true — are easier when you use T/F marking. You're looking for the F in a field of T's rather than trying to remember which answer was wrong while evaluating the rest.
Half-true answers contain two statements — one correct, one incorrect. Put a slash between the two parts and evaluate each separately. If any part is false, the whole answer is false. Mark it F in the margin.
When Two Answers Both Look Good
If you're stuck between two choices, stop staring at the answer choices and go back to the question stem and the fact pattern. The test maker had to put something into the question itself to justify why one answer is better than the others. The deciding factor is usually in the stem, not in the choices.
When none of the choices seems fully adequate, eliminate the ones that are definitely wrong or most seriously incomplete, then choose the best remaining answer. Test makers don't have to include all correct procedures — they only have to include one choice that is more correct than the others.
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