Can you improve your multiple choice test results with sudoku?

Really?

Actually, yes. The biggest challenge most students face with the multiple choice format is the logic skills required. Multiple choice tests are fundamentally about the process of elimination – your goal is just as much to discard the wrong answers as it is to find the right ones.

Sudoku, if you pay attention, is a similar process. It’s a logic puzzle, which in it’s simplest form is a 9×9 grid in which each row, column and 3×3 sub-grid contains all of the numbers from 1-9, but only once in each. In order to complete the puzzle, you need to use a simple set of logic skills similar to that used in finding the correct answer for multiple choice questions.

Using Sudoku for Your Next Multiple Choice Test

There are two ways you can use these puzzle for multiple choice tests. The first is to use it during your test prep. Try doing a few puzzles before tackling a practice test, and see if you notice a difference. The second is to do a few puzzles immediately before an exam to get the right logic parts of your brain fired up. In my opinion, that not only helps you get through an exam faster, it also reduces multiple choice test anxiety.

Give it a shot – after all, how often do you get test prep advice that tells you to procrastinate by playing games online?

- S.M.

Sudoku Tests Online:

• Web Sudoku
• Daily Sudoku
• sudoku.com.au

Note: The GRE uses the multiple choice format liberally. If you want the links to the GRE sample questions, just scroll down. If you’d like an overview first, and some GRE-specific multiple choice strategies, keep reading! -SM

The Basic GRE Structure

Three of the four GRE test sections are in multiple choice format – that makes this exam, like others, a challenge for anyone who feels like MCQ’s give them a hard time.

The three multiple choice sections on the GRE are:

• Verbal: This section tests language abilities using questions involving sentence completion, antonyms,  and analogies. Normally about 30 multiple choice questions and 30 minutes.
• Quantitative: This section tests high school mathematics. Typically about 28 MCQ’s, 45 minutes.
• Experimental: The GRE often includes new test questions so that they can be benchmarked for difficulty. The good news is that these questions won’t count towards your score. The bad news is that you won’t know which ones they are, if any – they’ll be blended right in with the rest of the questions.

For our multiple choice purposes here, that’s enough background. If you want to get into scoring algorithm and other nitty-gritty details, check out the GRE Wikipedia page.

GRE Multiple Choice Tips

• Practice your CAT skills: The GRE is a computer adaptive test (CAT). That changes the game a little – make sure you download the software (below) and check out our list of computer adaptive test tips.
• Nail the First Five Questions: they count for more. After that…
• …Answer Everything: There are no penalties for wrong answer on the GRE. Make sure you answer every multiple choice questions. In fact, you can’t skip a question, so get comfortable using the process of elimination to improve your odds.
• Choose current study guides: the GRE has changed dramatically over time (there was a particularly big update in 2007) so make sure the materials you’re using for reference are up to date, particularly the stuff that relates to test format and content.
• Practice, practice, practice: I’ve heard the GRE referred to as “uncoachable.” Not true. You definitely can raise your marks by tapping into as many sample questions as possible. As with all multiple choice exams, GRE practice tests and questions are going to be your best use of study time. With that in mind let’s get to the…

…Free GRE Practice Tests

First, the obvious stuff:

• ETS, the folks who actually write the GRE, offer a free GRE sample test in PDF
• They also offer GRE software you can use to emulate the real deal, interactice sample questions, and a math-specific PDF.
• There are new resources occassionally – check out the ETS page here.

Once you get past that, however, try some of these resources. Remember – the more practice GRE questions you can get your hands on, the better.

• Best Sample Questions
• Syvum
• Peterson’s has a free practice test
• GraduatesHotline.com offers sample questions for the verbal portion of the GRE
• 800score.com has a free download of the GRE math section
• GRE guide
• Princeton Review offers a free GRE demo test
• So does Kaplan, but you’ll have to register (free)
• West Texas A&M offers practice GRE math questions
• MicroEdu.com offers 30 free GRE multiple choice questions with answers
• Examville has full, math, and verbal practice tests, but you’ll have to register first
• TestPrepReview.com (they’ve also got a massive collection of links to various sites to help with specific GRE skills)
• Majon.com has free GRE verbal and math samples and answers
• 4Tests.com has about 50 free questions total

Paid GRE Practice Tests

For a great list of GRE prep books with the “must-have’s” noted, visit this post on the Happy Schools Blog. If you can’t afford the books, consider this idea from the Grad School Application Process blog for getting your hands on more GRE sample tests:

there are a number of books filled with old GRE paper exams. These are a great place to start as well. Honestly, I would just camp out in Barnes and Noble or Borders and use their books without having to purchase them. It’s not a bad way to go.

There are tons of GRE sample tests you can pay for – online, or in book form.

If you find a broken link, or another resource for GRE practice questions, contact me to let me know!

Here are four themes that characterize excellent multiple choice preparation:

Use Successive Condensing

One of the critical factors of mastering you material is to continually have less of it on paper, and more of it in your head.   I call this successive condensing. Your study notes should continually shrink until they become a very simple outline.  Imagine that information is entering your brain, and leaving the page.

Limit Your Time

Your exam time is limited, why shouldn’t your study time be, too?   This goes against conventional thinking, but why give yourself unlimited time?  We all know that what we have to do has a tendency to expand to fit the time available.  If you give yourself all day to learn material for your statistics class, it’s going to take all day.

Wouldn’t you rather learn it all in half the time, and spend some time doing other things?

Understand, Don’t Memorize

Try to learn, not memorize.  Seek to understand the relationships between things.

Structure Your Material

Break the material into categories and headings.  Try to take all of your course content, and fit it on one page in the form of a diagram, or a nested table of contents-style outline.

You can be putting in hours of study time, but your time’s being wasted if you’re falling into these common traps when studing for your multiple choice tests:

1. Rigid study schedule: Study schedules aren’t always ideal for multiple choice exams, and they may not fit your style. Don’t be too rigid.
2. Reading and re-reading (writing too little): Studying means using your brain and your hands. Get the pen on the paper and capture the main essence of what you’re reading.
3. Writing too much (not condensing): If you’re writing and rewriting the same old notes, it’s time to put the pen down. You’re not a photocopier. Focus on learning and gradually reducing your study notes over time.
4. Giving yourself too much time to study: Like any task, your studying will expand to fit the time available. Restrict yourself to tight, focused and effective blocks of time.
5. Memorizing instead of understanding: Simply trying to memorize is going to get you in trouble. Success on MCQ tests comes through comprehension. You need to understand what you’re reading, not just memorize it. Remember: you’re not a trained monkey.
6. Staring at the same pages over and over: Just realized you’ve been on page 214 of your textbook for the past hour? If you find yourself staring at a page over and over without really learning, it’s time to take a break or switch topics.

While conventional multiple choice study wisdom says you should create a study schedule and follow it rigorously, there are a few problems with this approach:

• Study schedules weight the difficulty of everything the same
• Study schedules assume your brain works with equal effectiveness at all times
• Study schedules don’t properly weight your existing knowledge of a topic
• Study schedules give false feelings of productivity
• Study schedules lower your morale when you can’t stick to them (which most people can’t)
• Study schedules don’t allow for the real world
• Study schedules lead to wasted time

Your best bet for managing your multiple choice prep time is to self-monitor. Don’t just read stuff for the sake of reading, and don’t just make schedules because that’s what everyone else does.

If you absolutely can’t live without scheduling your life, then let’s try to make your schedule more effective:

• Make the schedule tight, and aggressive.
• Don’t schedule time for “general studying”. Schedule time for building your structured, master document.
• If you can’t stay focused, switch to another topic, and start the master document for it.
• Not everyone can focus on the same material for hours at a time.
• Be aware. When you glaze over, get tired, or your attention wanders, it’s VERY difficult to force yourself to focus. Take a break, or switch topics.

The key to improving your multiple choice preparation lies in retention – what can you recall when the paper is in front of you and the clock is ticking?

What people tend to lose sight of is that the key to retention lies in comprehension, not simply memorizing or studying more. How well do you understand the material? And how well do you understand how well the various pieces of material relate to each other?

A sure-fire way to increase comprehension and retention while studying is in structuring. Try this 7-step multiple choice study system for structuring your course handouts and notes:

1. Read the table of contents or outline if there is one. Look at the headings, sub-headings, etc. Is there a logical breakdown of the material?
2. Skim through all the pages. Take an hour if you need to. Look for headings, sub-headings. Don’t write. Just get a feel for how things are organized.
3. Skim through again with a couple of highlighters. Highlight all the headings you found. Use different colors for headings, sub headings, sub-sub headings, etc.
4. Go through again with a pen. Make a structured “table of contents” on a separate piece of paper. Just the headings and sub-headings – no content. This is the structure of the course!
5. Start reviewing the content. Use a different highlighter to highlight important content in each section. That way you don’t have to read everything again.
6. On your next pass, start writing essential content into the table of contents that you created. This will become your core study document. Keep it concise.
7. Use the core document for all studying. Quiz yourself, and only refer to your original notes when you absolutely have to. You’ll notice that this core document starts to bear a striking resemblance to a very long multiple choice test!