Medical Students Exam Tips: MCQ

I haven't blogged in a while and for that I apologise. It's not that there isn't anything to blog about, are you kidding me?

There's so much but these I will jot down today so that I will remember to blog about them hopefully next week (since were flying off to Kota Kinabalu tomorrow).

Since my last REAL blog post, I have helped:

Event management - this is in relation to Medical Mythbusters Malaysia, which also deserves one blog post in itself

Press conference - Could be combined with the above post

Facebook page administration - again related to the first post but there's so much more to it

200 Hours Dialysis training - so many things I have learnt about this that if I dont blog now, there's no guarantee I will remember the details in a few months time. A few days ago, someone asked me about maids visa for visiting Australia. That took place in Feb/March this year and thank God I had blogged it, how to remember the finer details otherwise?

Yesterday was Prof 3 exam. Written papers, so during MCQ invigilation, some tips resurfaced out of nowhere. As things settled, I just casually noted them in my FB timeline and quite a few people shared it. So before it's gone forever in the 'things you posted last year' category, I thought I'd paste them here so that I can add on and refine/refer from time to time.

Tips for medstudents:

MCQ exam.

Apart from studying the material and practicing MCQs, you must know beforehand:

1) total no. of questions
2) Format-whether one best answer or True False.
OBA is slightly more difficult
3) Time allocated and time per question
4) Whether there is negative marking.

If there is no negative marking, ANSWER ALL QUESTIONS

*****

if there is negative marking, how much?
Minus one or minus half?

Then formulate your strategy

Example:

If minus half:

At the first round, ANSWER ONLY THOSE YOU KNOW 95-99% SURE YOUR ANSWER IS CORRECT.

Leave those you are 50/50 sure (or unsure).

Then count the total no. of answers you know are correct. If it's less than 50% and the passing mark is 50%, that means you NEED to guess.

If you have 45/100 answered, and it's true false with 50% chance of getting it right by pure luck, then answer another 10-15% of questions. DONT GO OVERBOARD.

If you have answered more than 50% in the first round and your target is 60% or honors, use the same 'formula' to know how many more questions to answer.

With negative marking, it is not wise to guess too much.

Hope this helps.