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Video Transcript Advanced Test Taking Strategies for Undergraduate
Students
In this particular session, I am going to focus more on test wiseness clues and last
resort strategies for students in undergraduate programs.
But I want to remind you that in our first session we talked about, and we are talking
about test taking strategies multiple choice exams
here, we talked about strategies for managing the exam and we looked at various question
types and a couple of special situations. In this
particular session, I want to talk a little bit
about test wiseness clues and some last resort strategies. And then we are going to look
at some practice questions and show you how some
of those strategies and some other concepts apply
in actual test taking.
Let me mention my disclaimer at this point. Sometimes I am accused of talking about test
wiseness strategies and clues and guessing strategies as the end all in test taking.
Like you don’t need to know anything. I want to assure
you that there is no test strategy in the world
that is going to make a difference if you don’t know your material. The best test
strategy in the world is to know your stuff. If you don’t
study it’s going to show up and you can have the
best strategies in the world and they’re not going to do a whole lot for you. There
are some people who take tests very well and there
are others who struggle with them. I think being
test wise and having some strategies can allow you to be a little more relaxed. And they
also can help you by confirming that you are on
the right track and confirming that you know your
material. And that’s the perspective that I want you to take from this.
Let’s look at test wiseness clues. We are going to look at four of them here. One of
them particularly in the undergraduate context
and then some last resort strategies. What I call
mutually exclusive or contradictory pairs. And these are all one best answer questions
that we’re dealing with.
Opposites or contradictory pairs: The concept here is, if you during your scan of the answers
notice that two answers contradict with each other, it’s usually a red flag. It says
think about me and think about me. And a high percentage
of the time, one of those contradictory pairs tends to be the answer. It doesn’t
guarantee it. So, don’t hunt me down if you went
with one of the opposites and shoot me one day. Understand that it is a technique. In
this case we have “Magnetic Hill near Moenton
appears to run”. You will notice that “a” says
“upward but actually downward” and “downward but actually upward” (pointing to “d”).
In this case I would be thinking about those two opposite
answers. In this case this one (pointing to “d”) happens to be the answer. If anybody
is aware of Magnetic Hill, you can actually drive
down a hill, turn your car around, put it in neutral, and the car will scoot to the
top of the hill. It happens to be an optical illusion.
But, be aware that contradictory pairs are a red
flag. And this is something to think about.
The next test wiseness clue has to do with the negative question we discussed in our
first session. The negative question is a question
that might have one of these words: all but one,
a popular one is except, no, not, never, and the word least. If you have one of these words
usually in your question, then you know you are dealing with a negative question. This
is probably kin to a last resort strategy. But
you also need to be aware that it can confirm that
you are on the right track. If you have a negative question and you are struggling with
it, what I suggest is you leave it to the end
and come back. Remember the negative question you
are looking for the false answer, or another way to think about it is, the odd answer.
The one that doesn’t fit. Sometimes what you will
observe with a negative question is, and in this
case there are five answers, that four of them will have something in common. If you
can tease out that common thread, or that common theme,
or that common thesis, in four of the answers, usually the odd one will stick out like a
sore thumb and it can confirm that you are on the
right track. Let’s look at this question: “Youngsters who are raised in very restrictive
conditions, show all but one of the following” or show all except. Think about this with
me in a social context. This is a simplistic example.
It’s the principle I want you to understand. If youngsters are raised in restrictive conditions,
you think they would “a” demonstrate a weakness in social awareness. Probably. Is
this a positive or negative behavior? Probably negative. “b” Impulsive behavior tends
to be negative. “c” deficiency in problem solving
ability tends to be negative. “d” Increased resistance to stress and disease, positive.
Be careful with these words that tend to be negative.
Some people would read that and key in on “resistance” and say its negative, yet
you have to take the whole answer in context. Do I quit
there? No. Read every distracter. It’s important to read all your distracters in any
question you are dealing with. Because one little word can make it subtly different.
“e” Youngsters who have disturbances in their
sensory systems. Positive or negative? It is
negative. And there is my odd answer (circling “d”). Sometimes that strategy can help
you key in on an answer and lead you in the right
direction. That was contradictory pairs and common
likeness.
Let’s move on to middle or moderate value. The idea here is if you find a word in an
answer that is all-inclusive. And by that we mean
any word that is 100% in concept. Where there is
absolutely no exception. If I say, “I always go on Saturday night”, does it mean I go
sometimes? No. It means I go all the time, 100%. All, always, no, not, never, entirely,
completely, wholly. And in some contexts the word sterile. 100% of the time. (circle “not”
in question “a”) And the notion is, if you do not know whether that answer is true
or false, you want to assume that it is false (cross
out “a”). Statistically they tend to be false
more often than they are true. In “b” we have the word “always of” (cross out).
“c” several inches taller than the average male. There’s
nothing all-inclusive there. “d” Found to have an
abnormal… you will notice “ab” and what does that mean? Not normal. Watch your prefixes
also. “e” invariably associated with…Invariably
means no variation or always. So I would again if I
was in a situation where I wasn’t really sure, I would probably take that position
(circling “c”). Now, I will caution you that you
are not going to find it all that neat and clean. You
may find one or two answers that have an all-inclusive word. But again, the rule is, if you
don’t know whether it’s true or false you are probably safer assuming that it is
false.
D. Association: I would caution you here that this is probably one of the weaker test wiseness
clues; you don’t find it very often. But, occasionally it will pop up. This was a geography
or history question; “The main purpose of ‘el Plan Cardolian’ first instituted in
1963 and later discarded as a failure in 1969, was
to”: and in this case it is an obvious association and this is a prettyobvious question. They
are sometimes a little more sophisticated, but now
and then you will find this kind of association. The only language that matches here,
certainly not Canada, Australia, or South Africa, but probably Brazil because it’s
Portuguese. So that would be the answer that I would go
with (circling “c”). Again, it’s a weak test
wiseness clue, but occasionally you will notice it.
Now I want to move on and talk about strategies of last resort. And here we are talking about
those two or three questions on every test where you absolutely don’t know. The notion
is that you want to have strategy for guessing rather
than random guessing. If you have a system or a
strategy you tend, and I will say this again, you will tend to hit more often. I think one
of the worst things you can do on a test is random
guess. You may not be able to see this example, but the notion is that if there is
an answer that is longer with more detail and you
absolutely know nothing about the question, go with the longer answer. Sometimes as I
said before it is very difficult to make good test
questions. So sometimes they will throw in an
extra word or two to make the answers the same. So, it’s a reasonable bet within the
system. Not guaranteed to be correct but a strategy.
Middle or Moderate Value: If you again are guessing, and you absolutely don’t know
and you have a series of numbers, the idea is to avoid
the extremes and go with the value more in the
middle. And in this case the answer would be, not “c” but 6 would be the middle
value between the 1 and 14. So the answer would be “c”.
Letter of the Day: A very popular strategy. I encourage students, the last thing they
do before they start a test, and a lot of students
will tell me that the last thing they do is pray and I suspect that there is more prayer
on test day in a college setting than any other
day. But, the last thing you want to do is decide on letter of the day. And the idea
here is that if you have two, three, four, five questions
you absolutely don’t know and one of these other strategies won’t work, you want to
answer all of these questions using the same letter.
Most students will go with “b” or “c”. Now days, answers are pretty randomized, so
I’m not sure it makes a big difference. But again,
tend to stay away from the outliers and you maybe
want to go with “b” or “c”. You want to be consistent because statistically you
will hit more often. I will sometimes suggest if they have
four questions they absolutely don’t know and
each of those questions had four answers and you randomly guess, your odds tend to be 1
to 16. If I were to answer all of those questions
“c”, my odds would probably increase 1 to 4. You
have a little better odds there. So, letter of the day, a popular strategy.
Association (stem option): I will mention that this guessing strategy applies more to
undergraduate programs, but at the graduate level, and the professional school level I
would avoid it like the plague. It tends to be a
distracter, to pull you away. Undergraduate, you
will determine yourself whether you want to use it or not. It’s totally up to you. But,
occasionally, you will find a word in the question that is matched in one of the answers
and you could use that as a guessing strategy.
But again, I am always cautious with that particular strategy.
I want to move on very quickly and take you through some questions. I have pulled these
from different disciplines. Some come from medicine,
some come from history, come from science courses and perhaps geography. Show you how
these strategies apply. These are all one best
answer questions:
In question number 1, the first thing I notice is that it is a negative (underlining
“except”) question. My strategy here is that if I knew anything about this question
or this answer and could answer it, I would probably
rid myself of the negative word, read it as positive and find the false answer. I’m
going to assume that I don’t know the answer. It’s
something I’ve never seen before. I’m going to read my question: “Tumors that
are somewhat responsive to therapy should be investigated
in patients with carcinoma or cancer of unknown primary origin include all of the following
EXCEPT”. I often want to read a question then stop
and put it in my own words to help me understand. Here the patient has a tumor or tumors that
are somewhat responsive to therapy or treatment. They should be investigated in patients where
that cancer has an unknown primary origin. I would investigate in all of these except
one of them. I absolutely don’t know, so I am going
to use my association or my patterning, pattern strategy. I’m going to look for a common
likeness. We talked about that in the first session,
common likeness. The first thing that caught my eye, and remember in a negative question
you are looking for the false answer, or the odd
answer, the one that doesn’t fit. The first thing
that caught my eye was “carcinoma” running through all of the answers. That didn’t
help me cause I am looking for a false or odd answer.
So, let me look at the principle players. I’ve
got prostate gland, the lung, the breast, and germ cell carcinoma, and thyroid carcinoma.
I’ve never heard of this (question mark next to
“cell carcinoma”). There is a possibility. But
don’t quit there and I will come back and talk about this. So, what do I know? I’ve
got a prostate gland here. The lung is an organ.
The breast, we are talking about the mammary gland. Thyroid I know is a gland. So there’s
a pattern so let me take a chance at those (crossing off the glands). Those are out.
So I am down to the lung and germ cell, which I
have never heard before. Which one do I go with? Many people will gravitate to the answer
they have never heard before. Let me suggest something. If there is an answer that you
have never seen before you want to avoid it like
the plague. In most instances it is there to pull
you away. Knowing that I avoided that and I also know that the lung is an organ and
not necessarily a gland. So, I went with “b”.
Germ cell carcinoma I now know is cancer of the
ovaries or ***, which happen to be glands. But, the rule is that if there is an unknown,
you may want to avoid it. So this is a case where pattern of common likeness was helpful.
Number 2. The purpose of what, preoperative skin preparation is to: why do I prepare
the skin for an operation? (a) To reduce the number of microorganisms. (b) to remove all
resident bacteria. (c) to render the skin sterile. (d) or accomplish all of the above.
This is a popular answer (d) accomplish all of
the above, cause it makes sense. However, look at
this (circling all in answer b), one of those cautionary words, all-inclusive. If I reduce
the number of microorganisms am I removing all
resident bacteria? No, contradiction. The other
notion is, that sterile is an all-inclusive word. If I remove all resident bacteria am
I not rendering the skin sterile? Another concept
in test taking is if two answers say the same thing they tend to be wrong. And sense these
two are contradictory (circling a and b), I would
pick a; reduce the number of microorganisms. So always be cautious when you find all-inclusive
words in your answers.
I have not talked about this concept but it’s very simple. Here’s a question that
probably came out of geography or history. The country of Frankton was particularly
influential in early 19th century economic policy. This influence has been of great interest
to historians since the population of Frankton was less than. I have never heard of Frankton.
I don’t even know if it existed. I don’t know what the population was. I know it was
less than the highest number (circling a, 20,000).
So it’s at least a strategy. If it says less
than go with the highest cause it has to be less than the highest.
Number 4. In a recent article published in the British Journal of Psychiatric Modalities
the authors compared thirteen widely used psychological interventions and found that.
Look at a. Americans did NOT use. (b) Freud’s psychoanalytic
approach took too long and produced NO cures. (c) Carl Rogers client centered counseling
was uniquely successful. Possible. (d) Glaser’s Reality therapy could NOT be used
on clients with IQ’s under 90. If I were faced with
the situation of not knowing I would probably go with c and take the chance that these were
wrong (marking off a, b, and d). And in this case I would happen to be right.
In number 5, you should be able to download a copy of these so you have them in front
of you as you go through this tape. Number 5,
we are talking about the David Act adopted by
congress in the early 20th century and it became a significant piece of legislation
because of an amendment attached to the bill. I don’t
know. I have never heard of the David Act. Maybe
I should have, but in this case I would have to guess. I would go with the longest answer
(circling c). With more detail. Luckily I was right.
Number 6. Cells that look like parent cells are called: (a) undifferentiated (b)
anaplastic (c) well-differentiated (d) pseudodia. First, the thing that catches my eye is that
I have a contradictory pair. Two opposites; undifferentiated and well differentiated.
At least I’ve got a 50/50. In this case the
other thing that catches my eye is this “un”, which
means “not”. And so if I’m not really sure, I tend to avoid that and go with the
well –differentiated. Which in this case would
allow me to get credit for that question.
Number 7 is another except question. And in this case you have a man that is going in
for a gastrechtomy. He’s 70 pounds overweight. This is actually the surgical removal of the
stomach or partial removal of the stomach. He is 70 pounds overweight and he smokes 2
and ½ packs of cigarettes per day. Areas of preop
teaching for Mr. C would include all the following except one. What would I teach him, what would
I not teach him? If I wasn’t sure I would be
looking at whether there was a pattern or a relationship, common relationship, in these
answers. In the interest of time I will note that “a” is very objective. I can show
him the use of the incentive spirometer. It’s an
instrument they have patients blow in after surgery
to keep their respiratory system healthy and exercised. (b) Can I show him how much pain
he should expect? No. (c) Can I show him how
to log roll to get out of bed? Yes. (d) Can I
show him leg exercises? Yes. I am looking for the odd one or the exception. Which would
be “b”. Many students would gravitate towards
“b” and say “yes” I would teach him about pain.
But the notion is, can I talk about how much and you can’t quantify that.
Number 8. The government policymaking process depends on the relationship and the
interaction of the. You will notice “only” and “only” (crossing out b and c). Probably
not. And in that case, if I was guessing I would
go with the longest answer. Which would happen to
be right.
Number 9 is a more than. And in a more than situation I am going to go with the lowest
answer (d).
Number 10. We haven’t talked about this but remember talking in the first session
about always going with the mid range. But in cases
where you have ranges in your answers and in this case we are talking about Calamar rock
formation of the earth were found between the
depths of: (a) four to five (b) two to seven (c) three to six and (d) one to eight. You
always when guessing want to go with the widest range. And in this case it would be d, one
to eight.
Number 11. And I put this in here because it is another important concept in test
taking. We are talking about the PH of acidulated fluoride gels. What kind of fluoride gel
and where does the fluoride gel go in your mouth. And it is talking about acidulated
and the base there is acid. When you deal with test
questions always use your common sense. Always work from what you know to a conclusion. Now
we know that 7 is neutral and anything above is
alkaline and anything below is acid. We are talking about an acid fluoride gel. 7, 7,
9 to 11. Those are automatically out (crossing
out c, d, and e). We are down to a and b. So which
one do I go with? You have to think common sense here. Would you put an acid of 1 in
your mouth? No. You would probably loose your lips
pretty quickly. So you wanna go with the 3 to
5.
I would suggest that you take a few minutes and look at these strategies just to become
familiar with them. I want to say this; one of the worst things you can do is go into
a test looking for these strategies. You do not want
to do that. You go looking for strategies your
focus is strategy rather than what the question is asking you. You want to read the question,
understand it, and always operate from your knowledge. It is good to have practiced these
before you go into a test. If you happen to notice one of the strategies as you are working
through the test, fine. But, don’t go looking for them. It will end up hurting you rather
than helping you. You miss the focus of the question. If you can sensitize yourself to
these by practicing old questions, I think in the
long run it will help you. And that ends this particular session. Thank you.