What is the best strategy for answering multiple-choice questions

If you have ever been stuck on a particular question thinking you have enough time, only to rush through the whole test later, then you need to read these tips.

When we are trapped in a whirlwind of multiple-choice questions and are having a hard time trying to figure out a way to mark the right answer, we all resort to informed guesses.

Yes, informed guesses, which should mean the closest answer, but, in reality, they are just guesses.

However, the real question is do we really need to rely on informed guesses, or is there another way? You can follow some strategies and hacks that are being used by various people since ages to score well in multiple-choice questions.

Understand The Question

Before answering any question, it is important to fully understand it. Avoid jumping to a conclusion and marking the answer without reading the whole question. Multiple-choice questions test your reasoning ability as well as your capability to understand questions.

Inability to understand a question can lead to avoiding an essential ‘not' hidden somewhere in the question, or not thoroughly checking if there are more than one correct choices. So, read the full question first, and then, mark the correct answer.

Check The Answers Carefully

Checking or reading all the choices is equally essential. Sometimes we see the first choice and mark it knowing that it is the answer, but we forget to check other options. There is a possibility of more than one answer being correct. In such a scenario, either you'll be able to mark more than one answer or you'll be given an option such as ‘Both a and b' and ‘All of the above'.

Additionally, checking beforehand for choices like ‘All of the above' and ‘None of the above' can save some time. You can simply use the true and false method to find the correct choice.

Eliminate Incorrect Answers

Some questions are tricky when you read them; however, the choices of such questions may be easy. You can straight away cancel out answers that do not fit in the context. In the end, you'll be left with very few choices to select from. So, always narrow your answers for a better approach.

Think Of The Correct Answer

The right method is to think of the answer before actually checking the choices. This will give you an idea of what the answer should look like and then you can look for similar options. If you frequently get confused with complex choices and questions, this strategy can work wonders for you. You just have to anticipate the answer before checking the options given to you.

Look For The Choices With ‘Never’, ‘Always’, ‘None’ Or ‘All’

We have always been told that questions with ‘Never', ‘Always', ‘None', or ‘All' are complicated and can create confusion. When the truth is approximately 53% of the times choices such as ‘None of the above' and ‘All of the above' are correct. Marking these choices can enhance your result by up to 90%.

Look At Neighbouring Questions

When you are totally confused and stuck to a question, guess. However, the trick here is to guess intelligently. Look for the questions above and below. If the above question has the answer ‘A' and below question has the answer ‘D', there are fewer chances of the middle one having these choices as an answer.

Select The Lengthiest Choice

If any of choice seems lengthier than others pick that option. Think about it, when only one choice is lengthy, it is less likely that the examiner wasted time to write a lengthy wrong answer. Definitely, this lengthy answer has some details and no one will spend time writing and filling in extra details just to make that choice unfeasible.