It’s a myth that you can’t study for multiple choice exams. Not only can you study for them, but you can learn the art of answering these kinds of questions. Here are the elements of that art.
- Don’t forget the bubble sheet!
Bring a ruler or a blank piece of paper to ensure you are filling out the right answer on the right line on the machine-readable bubble sheet.
“You can mark your answers on the test booklet, but remember to go fill the sheet in after,” said Johnny Tong, an Instructional Support Assistant with the Department of Economics who marks tests and exams like these. “And, even if you have no idea what is right or wrong, don’t leave answers blank! No points get taken off for wrong answers on multiple choice tests for ECO101 or 102. Lucky guesses can be worth a few extra points.”
Also, don’t forget to put your name and student number on the bubble sheet before you include it with the exam booklet in case they get separated.
- Remember, its not about choosing the only correct answer. It’s about choosing the MOST correct answer.
The difference between written answer tests and multiple-choice tests is that there is no room for argument or nuance in a multiple-choice test. Your textbook may explain concepts, like marginal benefit versus marginal cost, and then list qualifiers or exceptions. A multiple-choice test will ask about your understanding of the definition, how it is used, or what the exceptions or qualifiers are. Your job is to understand what the test question is asking of you and then choosing the best answer, even if the other options contain information that is factual. Look at the following example from a past ECO101 exam from the Old Exams Repository:
You are out for dinner with a group of friends. When ordering, you assumed the group would split the total bill evenly. At the end of the meal, you learn that each person must pay for what they ordered. As a result of this change:
- You spent too little on your own meal
- You consumed where your marginal benefit exceeded your marginal cost
- You consumed where your marginal benefit was less than your marginal cost
- The total bill for the dinner was too low
- You and your friends spent the appropriate amount on dinner
While option e might always seem sensible and correct, this is an economics test question, not a budgeting app. The split bills versus separate cheques scenario probably came up during your lectures or tutorials. It’s one reason why you should use the lectures as your guide to studying. Believing the bill would evenly split made you less sensitive to the cost of each item the group ordered. Your marginal benefit exceeded your marginal class.
“For an indecisive person like me, it might be dauting to have to select one right answer,” said Kevin Wang, this year’s lead learning assistant of the Economics Study Centre. “But don’t worry too much about the possible answers, just do the question the way you practiced, and if your answer matches one of the options, you’re probably correct.”
How do you practice in the way Kevin describes? You get questions from past exams in the Old Exam Repository.
- Read every word of every question and every answer every time
There are so many past exams available that multiple choice tests are easy to practice. The danger comes from believing you recognize a question and don’t process the small words that create its many variations. As you read, watch out for negative words like not, none, and neither.
Also, read all the possible answers and select the very best one. Most of the responses will be partly correct. You are looking for the answer that best fits the context of the question. Words in the questions that qualify statements, like most, usually and generally can help you differentiate the partly correct answers from the best answer.
Solutions like “all of the above” and “none of the above” should be treated with suspicion.
- Make your most educated guess
As Tong said, there is no penalty for multiple choice wrong answers on ECO101 or 102 exams, but you don’t have to shade any random bubble. If you really don’t know the best answer, eliminate the answers you know are wrong to improve your odds of finding the best answer. In using the process of elimination, you might also consider how the responses are written. If the question is written in the past tense, but one of the answers is written in the present tense, it may be suspicious.
Go back to The Thrive Guide 2024 main page.
Read about the Economics Study Centre.
Read about the Old Exam Repository.
Return to the Department of Economics website.
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