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I completed heaps of multiple choice exams in my undergrad life as an Honors Science (Biology) student. Here's some advice for taking and passing multiple choice exams, based on my experience. I've always enjoyed taking these types of tests. I treat it like an old-school arcade game. Each question is a chance to score a point. Go for the high score!
Your biggest enemies are blood sugar, anxiety, and time.
Your brain is like a muscle. Ideally it would be well-rested and highly conditioned. But the most important thing is to ensure it's operating efficiently and doesn't run out of gas. The brain runs on glucose. Being hungry makes you stupid and forgetful. But don't ram yourself full of caffeine and skittles. Eat fruit, protein, whole grain snacks. You need to keep an even level of blood sugar so you can think clearly and not crash.
Also key to thinking clearly is your anxiety level. Breathe. Prepare yourself. Remind yourself that it's just a test. No one will be put to death if you fail. Your dog will still love you. It should be fun, remember: go for the high score!
Time is probably the biggest killer. That's where your Exam Strategy comes into play:
- Answer the easy questions first. There will be some questions that you can answer as soon as you read the question. Answer these quickly and move on. You can probably answer 2/3 of the questions in 45 to 60 seconds each, providing you've done your readings.
- Skip over the tough ones. There will be some questions that you could puzzle over for 25 minutes and still not be sure of the answer. There is no time for puzzling. Besides, pulling your hair out over a tough question wastes time, fries your nerves, increases your anxiety level, and undermines your confidence. You have not time for these things.
- Keep track of time. For example, in Section A, suppose you knew 45 of the 70 questions right off the bat. Working through them quickly and skipping the tough questions would get you to a point where you are confident that you have at least a 65% score, and have only used up 45 minutes of exam time. You now have a whole hour left to answer the last 25 questions. Two minutes each, plus 10 minutes to spare. Nice.
- Chill. Take 2 minutes to stretch your neck, rest your eyes for a sec, take a deep breath, and say to yourself, "I rock! I'm only a few right answers away from a passing score!"
- Wash, rinse, repeat. Now back to work. Use the same approach to tackle the not-so-tough questions of what remains. What you want to avoid is spending 10 minutes agonizing over any one question and then running out of time before getting to questions you could have scored points on. If you know it, answer it, if not skip it and come back to it later. The exam software at Prometric (the testing center) makes it really easy to do this, by automatically cycling you through the questions you haven't answered yet, or have marked as unsure.
Multiple Choice L.A.R.Exam Sections and Duration: how to budget your time wisely:
Section A - Project and Construction Administration
- 70 questions
- 1 hour 45 minutes (plus 15 minute tutorial)
- = 1.5 minutes per question
Section B - Inventory, Analysis and Program Development
- 90 questions
- 2 hours (plus 15 minute tutorial)
- = 1.33 min per question
Section D - Design and Construction Documentation
- 120 questions
- 3 hours (plus 15 minute tutorial)
- = 1.5 min per question
Bonus hint #1: You may purchase a practice test from CLARB. For added realism, hire strangers from a nearby bus stop to come to your house and hum, tap pencils, fidget, and whisper to themselves while you are trying to concentrate.
Bonus hint #2: Don't study to remember, study to recognize. In a multiple choice exam, you don't need to explain the answer to anyone else, you just need to be able to recognize the suspect in a line-up. Yes, yes, the exam is designed to force you to learn, and then measure and prove what you've learned. And it does do that. But you're trying to pass the exam not demonstrate your omniscience. You don't have to be perfect today.
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