8.4 TYPES OF QUESTIONS
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Your instructors choose not only what types of exams they give you but also what types of questions you should answer to demonstrate what you are learning in the course. You may take an exam that has one or multiple types of questions. This section includes strategies to help you answer different types of questions successfully.
Essay Questions
Essay exams include questions that require students to write a few paragraphs in response to each question. Many college instructors have a strong preference for essay questions for a simple reason: They require deeper thinking than other types of questions. Generally, advanced courses are more likely to include essay exams. To be successful on essay exam questions, follow these guidelines:
Budget your exam time. Quickly go over the entire exam, and note the questions that are the easiest for you to answer. Estimate the approximate amount of time you should spend on each essay question based on its point value. Remember, writing long answers to questions that have low point values can be a mistake because it takes up precious time you might need for answering questions that count more toward the total grade. Be sure you know whether you must answer all the questions or choose among questions. Wear a watch to monitor your time, and don’t forget to leave a few minutes for a quick review.
Actively read the whole question. Many well-prepared students write good answers to questions that were not asked—when that happens, they may lose points or even fail the exam. Many other students write good answers to only part of the question—they also may lose points or even fail the exam.
Develop a brief outline of your answer before you begin to write. Make sure that your outline responds to all parts of the question. Use your first paragraph to introduce the main points; use the other paragraphs to describe each point in more depth. If you begin to lose your concentration, you will be glad to have the outline to help you regain your focus. If you find that you are running out of time and cannot complete an essay question, provide an outline of key ideas at the very least. Instructors usually assign points on the basis of your coverage of the main topics from the material. That means you will usually earn more points by responding briefly to all parts of the question than by addressing just one part of the question in detail. You might receive some credit for your outline even if you cannot finish the essay.
Write concise, organized answers. Some students answer essay questions by quickly writing down everything they know on the topic. But long answers are not necessarily good answers. Answers that are too general, unfocused, or disorganized may not earn high scores. At the same time, don’t forget to give examples so that your instructor can see that you really do understand the big ideas and can illustrate them.
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Know the key task words in essay questions. Being familiar with key task words that may appear in an essay question will help you frame your answer more specifically. Table 8.1 lists common key task words. If your instructor allows you to do so, consider circling or underlining key words in the question to make sure you know how to organize your answer.
| Analyze | Break the whole topic into parts in order to explain it better; show how the parts work together to produce the overall pattern. |
| Compare | Identify similarities in ideas, events, or objects. Don’t just describe the elements; state how they are alike. |
| Contrast | Identify the differences between ideas, events, or objects. Don’t just describe the ideas; state how they are different. |
| Criticize/Critique | Judge something; give your opinion. Criticism can be positive, negative, or mixed. A critique should generally include your own judgments (supported by evidence) and those of experts who agree with you. |
| Define | Give the meaning of a word or an expression. |
| Describe | Give more information about the topic. |
| Discuss | Give broad statements backed up by detailed information. Discussion often includes identifying the important questions related to an issue and trying to answer these questions. |
| Evaluate | Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of an idea or a position. When you evaluate, you stress how well something meets a certain standard. |
| Explain | Clarify a statement. Explanations generally focus on why or how something has come about. |
| Justify | Argue in support of some decision or conclusion by showing evidence or reasons that support the argument. Try to support your argument with both logical and concrete examples. |
| Narrate | Relate a series of events in the order they occurred, as you do when you tell a story. |
| Outline | Present a series of main points in order. Some instructors want a formal outline with numbers and letters. |
| Summarize | Give information in brief form, without examples and details. A summary is short but covers all the important points. |
Multiple-Choice Questions
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Multiple-choice questions provide any number of possible answers, often between three and five. The answer choices are usually numbered (1, 2, 3, 4, . . .) or lettered (a, b, c, d, . . .), and the test-taker is supposed to select the correct or the best one. Preparing for multiple-choice tests requires you to actively review all of the material that has been covered for a particular period such as a week or a month. Reviewing flash cards, summary sheets, mind maps, or the recall column in your lecture notes is a good way to cover large amounts of material.
Take advantage of the many cues that multiple-choice questions include. Be careful about words in the question such as not, except, all, and but to make sure that the answer you choose fits the question. Also read each answer choice carefully; be suspicious of choices that use words such as always, never, and only. These choices are often (but not always) incorrect. Often the correct answer is the option that is the most comprehensive.
In some multiple-choice questions, the first part of the question is an incomplete sentence (called the stem) and the answer choices complete the sentence. In these questions, any answer choices that do not use correct grammar are usually incorrect. For example, in Figure 8.4, “Margaret Mead was an” is the stem. Which of the four options is grammatically wrong and can be ruled out?
To avoid becoming confused by answer choices that sound alike, predict your own answer to the question before reading the options. Then choose the answer that best matches your prediction.
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If you are totally confused by a question, place a check mark in the margin, leave it, and come back later. Sometimes a question later in the exam may provide a clue for the one you are unsure about. If you have absolutely no idea, look for an answer that at least has some pieces of information. If there is no penalty for guessing, fill in an answer for every question, even if it is just a guess. If there is a penalty for guessing, don’t just choose an answer at random; leaving the answer blank might be a wiser choice. Finally, always go back, if you have time at the end, and double-check that you chose the right answer for the right question, especially if you are using a Scantron form.
YOUR TURN > DISCUSS IT
Many college instructors do not give essay exams in first-year courses and instead use multiple-choice questions. What do you think are some of the advantages and disadvantages of multiple-choice questions? Share your reactions and ideas with the whole class.
Fill-in-the-Blank Questions
Fill-in-the-blank questions consist of a phrase, sentence, or paragraph with a blank space indicating where the student should provide the missing word or words. In many ways, preparing for fill-in-the-blank questions is similar to getting ready for multiple-choice items, but fill-in-the-blank questions can be harder because you do not have a choice of possible answers right in front of you.
Not all fill-in-the-blank questions are written in the same way. Sometimes the answers will consist of a single word; sometimes the instructor is looking for a phrase. There may be a series of blanks to give you a clue about the number of words in the answer, or there may be just one long blank. If you are unsure, ask the instructor whether the answer is supposed to be one word or more.
True/False Questions
True/False questions ask students to determine whether the statement is correct or not. Remember that for a statement to be true, every detail of the sentence must be correct. That is why questions containing words such as always, never, and only tend to be false, whereas less definite terms such as often and frequently suggest the statement might be true. Read through the entire exam to see whether information in one question will help you answer another. Do not begin to second-guess what you know or doubt your answers just because a sequence of questions appears to be all true or all false.
Matching Questions
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Matching questions are set up with terms in one column and descriptions in the other, and you must make the proper pairings. Before matching any items, review all of the terms and descriptions. Then match the terms you are sure of. As you do so, cross out both the term and its description, and use the process of elimination to assist you in answering the remaining items. To prepare for matching questions, try using flash cards and lists that you create from the recall column in your notes.