Study Skills for Multiple Choice Tests

Let’s start by addressing one of the most common misconceptions of multiple choice test prep.

The common wisdom is, “the more you study, the better you’ll do”. Yet you no doubt see people around you who seem to barely study, and yet do just fine. And there are others who study endlessly who get average multiple choice results at best.

I'm not suggesting that studying isn't going to help your multiple choice results - it will. However, multiple choice tests require a specific set of skills, and those skills are worth learning.

Proper preparation for multiple choice tests is worth the effort.  By using a proper prep strategy for multiple choice questions, you can:

• Spend less time studying
• Learn more in each hour you spend studying
• Learn more the first time you see information – like during classes and lectures
• Increase the speed at which you can review material
• Understand material, instead of memorizing it
• Increase your retention of material
• Increase the speed and amount of recall at test time

Sound good? Of course. But the best part is that it’s not hard! Proper preparation for multiple choice tests is based on three very simple principles:

1. Reduce the amount of material you have to read/learn/memorize
2. Focus on understanding instead of memorizing
3. Practice the test format

Try these study strategies for your next multiple choice exam:

1. Structure Your Materials in Multiple Choice Format

The key to improving your multiple choice preparation lies in retention – what can you recall when the paper is in front of you and the clock is ticking?

What people tend to lose sight of is that the key to retention lies in comprehension, not simply memorizing or studying more. How well do you understand the material? And how well do you understand how well the various pieces of material relate to each other?

A sure-fire way to increase comprehension and retention while studying is in structuring. Try this 7-step multiple choice study system for structuring your course handouts and notes:

1. Read the table of contents or outline if there is one. Look at the headings, sub-headings, etc. Is there a logical breakdown of the material?
2. Skim through all the pages. Take an hour if you need to. Look for headings, sub-headings. Don’t write. Just get a feel for how things are organized.
3. Skim through again with a couple of highlighters. Highlight all the headings you found. Use different colors for headings, sub headings, sub-sub headings, etc.
4. Go through again with a pen. Make a structured “table of contents” on a separate piece of paper. Just the headings and sub-headings – no content. This is the structure of the course!
5. Start reviewing the content. Use a different highlighter to highlight important content in each section. That way you don’t have to read everything again.
6. On your next pass, start writing essential content into the table of contents that you created. This will become your core study document. Keep it concise.
7. Use the core document for all studying. Quiz yourself, and only refer to your original notes when you absolutely have to. You'll notice that this core document starts to bear a striking resemblance to a very long multiple choice test!

2. Be Wary of Study Schedules for Multiple Choice Tests

While conventional multiple choice study wisdom says you should create a study schedule and follow it rigorously, there are a few problems with this approach:

• Study schedules weight the difficulty of everything the same
• Study schedules assume your brain works with equal effectiveness at all times
• Study schedules don’t properly weight your existing knowledge of a topic
• Study schedules give false feelings of productivity
• Study schedules lower your morale when you can’t stick to them (which most people can’t)
• Study schedules don’t allow for the real world
• Study schedules lead to wasted time

Your best bet for managing your multiple choice prep time is to self-monitor. Don’t just read stuff for the sake of reading, and don’t just make schedules because that’s what everyone else does.

If you absolutely can’t live without scheduling your life, then let’s try to make your schedule more effective:

• Make the schedule tight, and aggressive.
• Don’t schedule time for “general studying”. Schedule time for building your structured, master document.
• If you can’t stay focused, switch to another topic, and start the master document for it.
• Not everyone can focus on the same material for hours at a time.
• Be aware. When you glaze over, get tired, or your attention wanders, it’s VERY difficult to force yourself to focus. Take a break, or switch topics.

3. Study Using Actual Multiple Choice Questions and Tests

Using old and sample multiple choice questions is an exceptional way to prepare. Not only do you become comfortable with the format, but it's extremely common for questions from old multiple choice exams to be reused on later tests.

You don't necessarily need old exams written by the same professor - any exam on the same topic will be helpful.

4. Watch for Multiple Choice Study Pitfalls

Watch out for these common traps when studing for your multiple choice tests:

• Rigid study schedules
• Reading and re-reading (writing too little)
• Writing too much (not condensing)
• Giving yourself too much time to study
• Memorizing instead of understanding
• Staring at the same pages over and over