Of all of the types of test questions you might confront, multiple choice questions are perhaps the easiest to do well on if you know the strategy.  Here’s a strategy you can use:

1. Go through the test and answer every question you are sure of.  This accomplishes two things
   • It builds momentum
   • It eliminates possibilities from other questions you are unsure of
2. Return to the questions you don’t know.  See which of the possible answers you can eliminate.
   • Some will be obviously wrong
   • Any possibility that is an answer to another question can probably be eliminated
3. Select the possibility that you believe is the best one.  Generally if there is a possibility that was emphasized by the teacher in a lecture, this is a good one to select.
4. When you complete answering all of the questions, review them to be sure that you don’t have the same answer for two questions.  Also check to see if there was any major topic covered in class that was not one of your answers.  If this is the case, go back and review the questions that this topic could have been the answer you selected.  Generally every major topic will be one of the answers.
5. Finally do a spot check of the answer sheet (e.g. scantron) to make sure the answers you made match up with the answer sheet.  There are times when your answers get out of line and every answer after that is marked incorrectly.

You should be able to get a good grade on a multiple choice tests if you follow this strategy.  However this strategy only works if you prepare for the test. .