Study Skills: Learn from Your Returned Multiple Choice Exam
by UWO Student Development Centre’s Learning Skills Services
Error Analysis for Multiple-choice Exams
When you have written an exam, spend some time trying to understand why you lost marks on the questions that you got wrong. If you can understand the reasons for some of the errors that you made, you may be able to adapt your studying and improve your performance on future exams. Think about the following:
You don’t ever remember seeing that information before!
If the information was from class, you may not have recorded it in your notes, and so your own review for the test did not cover it: maybe the prof was talking too fast in class; maybe you thought the point was unimportant and did not record it; or maybe that was one class that you missed. Similar problems could have happened if the information was from the text; reading too fast, dismissing the point as unimportant, or not finishing your readings.
The relevant course content is in your class notes and/or text summary, but you did not know it well enough in the exam:
Either you dismissed the specific information as not being important stuff to know when you studied for the test, or you did not apply enough memory strategies to that particular section of the course content, or you did not study enough for the test.
You may have used logic to answer the question rather than knowledge of course material:
There can be a tendency to choose the “that makes sense!” answer. You may have used your general knowledge base to make your selection, rather than your knowledge of the course content.
You may have fallen into the recognition trap–the “I know that!” syndrome:
One of the alternatives may have rung bells for you. The alternative you chose may have been a fact that was taught in the course. You may have remembered learning that fact, knew it to be true, and incorrectly assumed that it was the correct answer even though it did not answer the question that was posed. The stem of the question and the correct alternative are like a lock and a key: they go together as a pair!
You may have chosen a partially correct answer:
If the correct response was a combination answer, such as both a) and b), you may have got the question half right by selecting only either option a) or option b) and not the correct combination answer. In an “all of the above answer,” you may have selected only one of the options. You got part of the answer but not the whole answer that was required.
Reading too much into the question:
You may have done something that is very common with students; you may have been looking for a deeper meaning to the question, saying to yourself, “It has to be more difficult than this.”
You misunderstood the concept in the question:
Sometimes it takes an exam question to pinpoint problems that you have with some of the material.
Application to new context problems:
You may have good recall of facts but have more difficulty when applying those facts to a new context.
Reading mistake or limitation:
You may have made a decoding mistake, such as misreading or missing one important term, or it may be that you have a more serious problem with reading comprehension.
Calculation error:
If the question required some mathematical calculations, you may have made a mathematical error.
Myth problem:
You may have been applying some of the common myths about multiple-choice questions, such as one of the following:
(a) “This answer can’t be e) because the previous two questions were both e) answers.”
(b) “When in doubt, choose c).”
(c) “The correct answer is never all of the above.”
There is a problem with the question itself:
Occasionally, the question itself may be the problem.
(a) The question contains a typographical error, ambiguous wording, or more than one possible correct answer, and so the question is impossible for you to answer.
(b) The question tests an insignificant fact that the vast majority of students, including you, would not register as they learned the course content.
(c) The question tests a level of knowledge that is beyond what you reasonably should be expected to know.
Test anxiety or fatigue:
You may have been so anxious or so tired that your reading and thinking abilities were impaired. Talk to a counsellor if you think that this is a real option for you BUT first evaluate all of the above possible reasons for errors to see if they also apply.
This article was produced originally by Student Development Centre’sLearning Skills Services, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada. Reprinted with permission.