Test-Taking Techniques & Patterns

Beyond knowing the material, how you approach a question matters — the right technique can turn a question you're unsure about into one you get right, and save you real time on ones you already know.

1. The Elimination Method

When you're not 100% sure of an answer, don't try to find the right one first — try to eliminate the wrong ones. Most multiple-choice questions have at least one or two options that are clearly off (wrong category, obviously extreme, doesn't fit the grammar of the sentence). Cross those out first. Even eliminating just one wrong option meaningfully improves your odds if you have to guess.

2. Watch for "Trap Answers"

Test-makers often include answer choices that represent a common mistake, not a random wrong guess. A few patterns worth knowing:

• • The "forgot to convert" trap — an answer that's correct if you forgot to convert units (e.g., minutes to hours, or percent to decimal)
• • The "stopped halfway" trap — an answer that's correct if you solved only part of a multi-step problem
• • The "reversed" trap — an answer that swaps what's being asked (e.g., asks for the smaller value, offers the larger one as a decoy)

Being aware these exist makes you naturally more careful about re-reading exactly what's being asked before locking in an answer.

3. Work-Rate and Word Problems: Translate First

Word problems feel harder mainly because of the reading, not the math. A reliable technique: before doing any calculation, translate the sentence into a simple equation first. For example, "A can do a job in 6 days, B in 9 days — how long together?" translates directly to rate-addition: 1/6 + 1/9. Once it's translated, the math itself is usually simple — the skill is in the translation step, not the arithmetic.

4. Order of Operations: Read the Whole Expression First

A common mistake on PEMDAS-style questions is solving left-to-right without checking for parentheses or exponents buried later in the expression. Before calculating anything, scan the entire expression once and mentally mark: what's in parentheses, what's an exponent, what's multiplication/division versus addition/subtraction. Solve in that order, not reading order.

5. Time Management: The Two-Pass Strategy

Don't get stuck. On your first pass through a section, answer everything you're confident about immediately, and lightly mark (don't skip blank) anything you're unsure of. On your second pass, come back to the marked ones with whatever time remains. This ensures you never lose easy points because you ran out of time stuck on one hard question early on.

6. When Genuinely Stuck, Look for the "Odd One Out"

In questions with 4 similar-looking options, sometimes three of them share a pattern and one doesn't fit — that one's often either the obvious right answer, or the obvious wrong one, depending on what's being asked. This isn't foolproof, but it's a useful last-resort heuristic when you're down to a guess.

Ready to put these into practice? Try all 6 technique questions in order →

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