How To Guess an Answer of an MCQ

4.How To Guess An Option Of An MCQ

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Proper preparation and practice is the best way to crack any exam. It’s not possible to crack a competitive exam only on the basis of guessing the options. You can guess few questions which are left but still you need to have some knowledge and logic for guessing the right answer. Blindly guessing the answer may have negative impact on your score.

Blindly answering the question based on sequence or pattern should be avoided.

Following strategy one may try to guess an option of an MCQ that has high probability to be correct

Case-1: If last options “d) all of the above” is there

Take care when there is an option "all of the above"

If all the options are correct, sometimes student in hurry tick any of the three options and ignore all of "the above options".

i)      if you are sure that one of the option is true then the  correct option will be d) all of the these

ii)   If you are sure that one of the option is wrong then you are left with two options each having 50% chances to be correct, in this situation you can take risk of guessing the correct option.

iii)   If you are sure that two of the options are wrong then surely the remaining option would be correct option.

1)   Identify the wrong option

If you don’t know which the answer is, know that which is not

                               i.            identify the wrong option, if you are sure that three option are wrong ,it means that the remaining option is correct

                            ii.            If you identify two wrong options then you are left with two option each having probability of 50% to be correct. In such situation you can take the risk of guessing the correct option.

                         iii.            If you identify that only one option to be wrong then you left with three options each having the probability of 33% to be correct. In such situation, it depend upon you whether you take the risk of guessing or not.

                         iv.            If you can’t find any option to be wrong then it is not advisable to guess the correct option.

For Example: Question asked in 2015-2016 AMU XI Entrance

Q: A person with myopia can see only
a)    Nearby objects
b)   Distant Objects
c)    Neither nearby nor distant objects
d)   None of these

Option d) is not possible as the question is giving hint that person with myopia can see either nearby or distant objects

 Option c) is not grammatically correct i.e “A person with myopia can see only Neither nearby nor distant objects” , this sentence is not grammatically correct

Now, we are left with option a) and b) each having 50% probabilities to be correct answer.

2)   If two of the options are having opposite meanings

If there are two options which are opposite to each other then there are chances that the answer is one of them, you can take the risk to choose one of them but remember that it is not 100 sure the answer is among the two.

3)   Grammatically incorrect option

If the question is fill in the blank type or option that completes question's sentence then avoid the option which is not grammatically correct unless otherwise you are 100% sure about it.

4)   By putting the simple values in the formula.

Instead of solving the question you can do back calculation from options.

For Example Consider question asked in 10+2 Entrance AMU 2015-2016

Q. The expanded form of (4a -3b -2c)²  is

a)    16a² + 9b² +4c² -24ab +12bc - 16ac

b)   16a² + 9b² +4c² -24ab -12bc + 16ac

c)    16a² + 9b² +4c² +24ab -12bc - 16ac

d)   16a² + 9b² +4c² -24ab -12bc - 16ac

If you don’t know how to solve such question, it can be solved by putting simple values of variable in question and options both.

In this case just simply put a=1,b=1 and c=1, then

(4a -3b -2c)²  = ( 4 – 3 – 2 )² = 1

a)    16a² + 9b² +4c² -24ab +12bc - 16ac = =16+9+4-24+12-16 = 1

b)   16a² + 9b² +4c² -24ab -12bc + 16ac= 16+9+4-24-12+16 = 9

c)    16a² + 9b² +4c² +24ab -12bc - 16ac = 16+9+4+24-12-16 = 25

d)   16a² + 9b² +4c² -24ab -12bc - 16ac =16+9+4-24-12-16 = -23

From the above it is clear that a) is the correct answer

6.    Guessing the answer with the help of surrounding options

If you don’t know the answer of the question but you know the answers of surrounding question e.g you are trying to guess  Q.10 and you are sure that Q.9 has answer a) and Q.11 has answer c) then there would be high probability that a) and c) would not be be the answer of Q.10, so you can guess correct option among b) or d) but it is not necessarily true.
7.    When options are given numerical values.

When the options of the question are given in numerical values and you don’t know the correct answer then avoid the lowest and highest value.

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Guide To Prepare Competitive Examination based on MCQs
Ø How to prepare for Competitive Exam Based on MCQs
Ø How to attempt the question paper
Ø How to Answer a Multiple Choice Question
Ø How to guess an answer of an MCQ
Ø How to Fill OMR Answer Sheet
Ø Sample OMR Sheet as AMU Admission guide-2017
Ø Instruction to Fill OMR Answer sheet
Ø After Coming Out of The Examination Hall
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