tips for MCQs with negative marking

john^doyle

other than knowing all the answers is there a particular style to answering the questions that will allow me to get the best mark possible

i got 6% in an MCQ test this week - which is lame
about 80% of the class of 300 students failed it so its not like im particularly stupid, and i DID study :-/

so can any of you offer any tips?

(i'm 1st commerce btw)

thx..

Waltons

This wouldn't be microeconomics by any chance, would it?..

Jonny Arson

john^doyle wrote:

other than knowing all the answers is there a particular style to answering the questions that will allow me to get the best mark possible

i got 6% in an MCQ test this week - which is lame
about 80% of the class of 300 students failed it so its not like im particularly stupid, and i DID study :-/

so can any of you offer any tips?

(i'm 1st commerce btw)

thx..

Negative marking is OUCH!

The people who I knew in 1st Commerce last year told me that most of them simply looked into the person witting beside them or infront of them for their answers as it was so easy to do but I'd never recommend cheating.... no way jose. :rolleyes:

From what I know failure in the MCQ negative marking Economics exams in Commerce have always been quite high. From what I know they don't have negative marking in the Arts version of Economics.

Your best option is to introduce a process of elimination. Go over every answer with precision and eliminate which are non runners. Every MCQ test is about taking chances with answers so don't be afraid to chance it on occasions but for the questions you don't have a notion of just leave it blank as you won't lose anything.

BTW what is the negative mark percentage? If it was a third then be very careful, if it was something like an eighth do chance it.

ghostchant

The only advice I could give is that if you're unsure of a question, leave it blank. Go through it and answer everything you're sure of first, and then go back and have a look at the tricky ones. But if you're really not sure of something, best bet would be to leave it blank, provided you think you've answered a sufficient amount already.

john^doyle

haha yes it was microeconomics..

i think it was around -1/4 for every incorrect one

thanks for the advice

tribulus

pfff i just had a +1/-1 pharmacology MCQ with 75 questions so one could theoretically get -75%:eek: :eek:

if it's only -1/4 you can afford to take some chances. Count the number of definite right answers and decide from there if you want to push for some extra marks. Usually you'll be undecided between 2answers , so give it a go, remmber you need 4 wrong to cancel out 1right.

MatthewVII

Thinks might be different for my course, but there is a very general rule you can follow to answer MCQs. This applies to T/F mcq's more than anything

Rule 1) If a sentence uses the word "always" or "never", it's usually false

Rule 2) If a sentence uses the word "sometimes" or "usually" it's usually true

Rule 3) Long sentences are usually true

Obviously these are VERY general rules, the best rule being to study your subject until you can recite it backwards, but using this knowledge and a bit of educated guessing MCQs can actually be a great way to pick up points towards your EOY mark

Stabshauptmann

If uve the same guy I had for micro last yr hes a bollix. And whats worse we only had one lec a week and it was 9am thurs (wed being the class niht out every week).

If I saw a pattern in my answers eg 5 A's in a row I used to think that coulnt be right. But I dunno. I study micro intensivly for summer and did poorly so he is a bit of a prick. Look for similarities between the question eg if there are 4 options and 2 contain a certain phrase or condition I used to go for one of those.

best of luck and remember continuous assesment is worthless

Waltons

Yeah, I'd have to agree about the lecturer (if it's the same guy). When the class average is a failing grade......