As someone who’s taken 3 multiple-choice exams in survey-type classes (lecture) in the last week (2 of them today) I have been thinking about methods for taking exams. As I look over my blank red answer form, known as a Scantron, and then thumb through the exam pack, I try to waste no time in sighs but get right down to work. After 10 or so questions, I sometimes think, “whoa, ok–so far I really think I haven’t gotten a thing wrong!” but I make sure to read each question carefully, looking for vital clues which may reveal more probable answers. The obvious clues are always a great joy to spot, such as later question that completely answers a previous question:
18. The founder of The Atomists was:
A. Anaximander
B. Xeno
C. Democritus
D. Aristophanes
32. Democritus believed, according to his Atomist theory:
A. atoms can have different shapes.
B. atoms have no color.
C. atoms are eternal.
D. all of the above.
The statement of question 32 answers the earlier question 18, and if you answered something differently, at this point you’d flip back and change your answer. It’s like a free test question! Sometimes the answer to a previous question comes in the form of a choice for a subsequent question, like ‘B. Democritus and the Atomists’, but this is less reliable because associations may be intentionally mixed to throw off the student for that particular question.
The suggestion of answers based upon information in other questions can sometimes become more confusing than helpful, however. Normally, when I am answering a question I am not entirely certain of, I rule out as many choices as I can. What happens though, when another question comes up that’s on the same subject as the first unsure question, and information in the question suggests you may have been wrong about the first question? You have the choice of either sticking with your first answer and being consistent with your guess, or of changing your guess to correspond to your new guess in the new question. For example (a question I made up–but very well could have been seen on many tests I have taken before):
9. In Herman Melville’s Benito Cereno, Captain Amasa Delano’s character serves as a representative of:
A. European scepticism.
B. naval law; Delano as a judicial/naval etiquette figure at sea where naval code supersede national laws.
C. American shrewdness, capitalism and New-World economics.
D. simple New England innocence.
Suppose even though you’ve read the novel and studied your notes from class, no answer jumps out at you as exactly the answer you studied and had anticipated, but you are torn between 2 or 3 choices. You know that ‘A’ is not the answer, because Delano is an American. ‘B’ and ‘C’ both seem very reasonable, because a case could be made for both of these themes in the novel. At this point, if you’re like me, you might ask yourself something like, ‘this question is so stupid! It’s completely up to interpretation and you could argue that more than one answer is the best. The answer could be different depending on what sense you mean the question–literary? historical? psychological? arrrrgh!!’ After some thought, you decide to go with what you remember from reading the novel, that Delano is from New England, and since that is one of the choices, you think it must be the right answer because it wouldn’t be so specific otherwise. You mark it down and tell yourself you are 70% sure, and carry on.
14. Delano probes Benito Cereno about his seemingly inept method of command on Cereno’s ship, the San Dominick, and makes several comments about his own command aboard the Bachelor’s Delight, emphasizing his stern treatment of insubordination and breach of conduct. Delano wonders if Cereno is not a ‘paper captain’, which is defined by Delano as captains:
A. ‘who own the deed to the ship, but not the respect of the men.’
B. ‘who by policy wink at what by power they cannot put down.’
C. ‘whose naval exploits have been recorded in popular journals of their nation, but may have been elevated too highly.’
D. ‘who traffic in parchment–that hard to come by stuff that America’s most valuable asset, its laws and codes of government, must by means be recoded.’
This question seems to provide some information that could argue for a different answer above! The emphasis on law and naval conduct in question 14 suggests that maybe ‘B’ (B. naval law; Delano as a judicial/naval etiquette figure at sea where naval code supersede national laws) was the right answer in question 9. Suddenly, the 70% sure turns to 60% and falling–to say nothing of how to answer question 14! Could ‘C’ in question 9 correspond with ‘A’ in question 14 due to the economic nature of the content? Or perhaps the two questions are isolated and do not have anything to do with each other.
This is the third alternative: answer both questions as you see fit and do not worry if they both appear to lead in differing directions from one another. If you change the first answer to satisfy the latter (or vice versa), you risk being wrong on both counts. Worrying that you must be wrong because two of your answers don’t seem to match up between two questions (unless it’s a very obvious case that eliminates one of your answers as an option) is like worrying that there are too many ‘C’ answers when you get 5 in a row (I hate it when that happens!)
