So the day has arrived. You have prepared for this thing as well as possible. But now you are here, in the room, about to take this written test. Is there anything you can do now to improve your score and chances of success?
You bet. There are several things you can do, and doing them will add, on average, three points to your score on a 100-question test. Some of them will sound basic, obvious, and some may seem like wizardry, but trust me, do them all. Even the basic and obvious ones.
1. Read each question thoroughly, including all the answer choices, before marking one. It is often the case that the first or second answer, or even the third or fourth, will have some keyword, catch-word or recognizable phrase that you instantly latch on to. But it is often wrong. If you skim through it, you may see “… pressure … FDC for the sprinkler system …” and right away see 150 psi as an answer. Ok, probably that’s what they are asking and that’s the right answer. But maybe not. It could have been asking something else, like “What kind of pressure drop can engineers expect after hooking into the FDC sprinkler system connection?” Or, “What is the usual gpm discharge at a sprinkler head once connection is made to the FDC sprinkler system connection?” Don’t trust the quick scan. Read everything first, thoroughly, on each question.
2. First time through, answer only those questions you know for sure. This is important later on as you will see. Any that you are not certain of, skip for now, and go on to the next question.
3. When you do know the answer to a question, mark the answer sheet right then. Don’t circle it on the test booklet and fill in the answer sheet later. It is all too common, and catastrophic, to do that and be off by one. All the rest of your answers below that are wrong. Don’t risk it. Further, each time you mark an answer, verify you are marking the right one. Check the question number against the answer number you are marking.
4. It is a myth that you should always go with your first answer and resist any later desire to change it. Not true. You may well read a question further on down that jogs your memory and makes you realize you made a mistake on this one up here. If that happens, make the change. There is nothing “sacred” about your first answer and no reason not to change it later.
5. When you have answered all the questions you are certain of, go back and read through the ones you skipped. It may well be that have picked up something in the course of reading the entire test that now enables you to answer one or two of those you skipped. Again, only answer them if you are certain, at this point.
6. Now for some wizardry. Count how many answers you chose from position A, then B, C, and D and write those totals down. Say you’ve answered 70 with certainty. You may end up with totals like, 19 A’s, 16 B’s, 21 C’s, 14 D’s. We’ll come back to this. Set it aside for now.
7. Go back and examine the questions you skipped. Divide them into two categories: Those you have some idea of, and those that are going to be complete wild guesses. Forget the wild guesses right now. On those you have some idea of, eliminate any of the answer choices you can. Usually you can eliminate one or two. Then, and this is the only time you will do this, deeply consider each of these questions, one at a time, and using your knowledge, memory, common sense and thought, select and make your best choice answer. You have to make some answer, and you’ve come as far as you can with actual knowledge, so now make your best guess or estimate. Mark it down. Move on to the next. Keep an eye on the time. You’ll want to reserve at least 15 minutes for the wild guess procedure which is coming next.
8. The wild guess procedure depends on whether the test was commercially made or not. If it was commercially made then what you do is look back at those answer position totals you wrote down earlier, and answer all remaining questions with the response choice used least often. In this example that would have been D, since there were only 14 of those, the fewest of any of them. Mark all your remaining wild guesses as that, in this case D. The one used least frequently.
If the test was not commercially made, such as by a department instructor or training officer rather than a commercial test item writer, then do the opposite. Mark all your remaining wild guesses with the response used most frequently, in this case C. There is a sound statistical reason for this, which can be found in the book Preparing for Emergency Services Testing, but it is beyond the scope of this article. For now, just remember the technique, never mind why it works.
9. When you have answered all the questions, rotate your answer sheet 90 degrees and look along each line. You should see four dots on each – make sure you do. It is possible to omit one entirely or mark more than one choice on a question. This is the time to catch that. It happens. Check for it. If you find you’ve omitted one, check that all the rest are not off by one question. That is, if you find answer 37 blank, make sure you didn’t put 37’s answer in 38’s position, and 38’s answer in 39’s position, etc. That would crash your entire test from there on. Well worth checking.
10. Check for any erasures. If you have changed an answer, make sure it’s erased completely.
11. Make sure your name and any other required information is filled in, complete, and accurate.
12. If you have done all of this and there are at least 30 minutes remaining, then stop, vacate your mind, think of something else, and relax. Mentally take yourself right out of there. Go to the Bahamas. Think about something else altogether, something pleasant, anything. Take about five minutes, but do not leave yet or turn in your paper.
At the end of five minutes, begin again. Take the test again. Read every question, decide what you think the right answer is, and see if that is what you marked on the answer sheet. Don’t go through all the procedures you did the first time, but make sure you agree with the answer you marked, to the best of your knowledge. About one time in 200 responses, you may find, to your amazement, that you simply marked the wrong answer. You know the answer, there was no doubt, but for some reason that will never be explained, you simply marked B instead of A. No explanation, it just is. So check for that.
13. When you are done and outside the testing hall, you can now make a reasonable estimation of your score. Begin with the questions you answered first time through, those you were certain of. Assume you got all of those right. Now recall those you weren’t sure of, but weren’t wild guesses – the ones you had to really think about. Assume you got a third of those right. Finally, assume you got a quarter of your wild guesses right. Now add those numbers up and you should have a pretty close estimate of your score.
These techniques work on any written multiple-choice test including entry, promotion, and even college and vocational school, and add, on average, about 3 points to your score.
HENRY MORSE, BA, MA, BA, NFPA Instructor Level IV, is the president of Fire Service Testing Company, Inc., which tests emergency services jurisdictions across North America for entry and promotion of personnel. Author of a number of books, including Emergency Services Personnel Testing Practices (2013), Preparing for Emergency Services Testing (2005), and others, he is a member of the NFPA 1001 Technical Committee and speaks on these topics and others related to testing and communication.
