Changes

Students have entered enough terms in Lecture One to enable us to move on to Lecture Two.  But before we start our second lecture for American history, we review some test-taking tips for multiple-choice history exams.  View a history exam like a contest or a game.  Part of your score is how much you know going into the exam, but a big part is how much you try on the test itself.

Before we start our second lecture for American history, let's review some test-taking tips for multiple-choice history exams.  Treat a multiple-choice exam like a contest or a game.  Your performance on the exam is a function of two elements:  how well you prepared prior to the exam, and how well you tried on the exam itself.  Many students do not perform as well on a multiple-choice exam as they could have.  These tips will help you improve on multiple-choice exam you take, whether in history, grammar or even your driving test.

MANY OF THE ANSWERS TO A HISTORY EXAM CAN BE FIGURED OUT DURING THE TEST.  The key is not to give up on questions that you don’t think you know the answer to.  You can get many of them right.  The person in the class who knows the most history probably won’t be the person who gets the highest score.  The highest score will usually go to the person who tries the hardest during the test.

On history exams many of the correct answers can be figured out during the test, '''if you do not give up too easily on a question'''.  The person in the class who knows the most history probably won't be the person who does the best on the exam.  Instead, the highest score usually goes to the person who tried the hardest during the test itself.

'''Tip Number Two''':  Pay particular attention to qualifiers in questions, such as “EXCEPT”.  Every exam there are many students who miss questions because they overlook “EXCEPT”.  For example, consider this question: “The Articles of Confederation contained all the following EXCEPT:” If you ignore the “EXCEPT” then you will answer the question incorrectly.

'''Tip Number One''':  Understand the question before you try to answer it.  Read the question twice if you have doubts.  Never, ever try to answer a question you do not understand.  You can improve your score by 10% on each exam by making sure you understand each and every question before attempting to answer it.  You will see other students miss questions because they misread them.

 

: Example: Pay particular attention to qualifiers in questions, such as "EXCEPT".  Every exam there are many students who miss questions because they overlook "EXCEPT".  Question: "George Washington was popular for all of the reasons EXCEPT" .... You will miss this question if you overlook the "EXCEPT".

'''Tip Number Three''':  Eliminate the wrong answers before picking the right one.  Draw a line through the wrong choices.

'''Tip Number Three''':  Eliminate the wrong answers before picking the right one.  Draw a line through the wrong choices.