Avoid the big mistake of changing right answers to wrong ones.

Have you ever written a multiple-choice based exam?
Have you ever gone back to review and modified answers on second thoughts.

Probably when it is all over and too late, have you ever realized that you went back only to change the correct answer to a wrong one?

If so read on..

When you realize that you changed the right answer to the wrong one, what does it actually mean? It means that your first instinct was right. Studies show that our first instincts are right 83% of the time. But then you have to go back to review the answers for those that you were not sure. Correct? So how do you actually distinguish between those that you answered right the first time and those that really need to be reviewed?

Here is a technique. As you are answering your questions, create a small table on a scrap paper, (if you are allowed to write some notes or scrap work). Make 3 columns and label them as follows:
1st Column: Confident
2nd Column: 50-50
3rd Column: No clue.

As you are attempting each question, if you know the answer and you are very confident that it is correct, write down this question number under the 1st column: Confident.

When you come across a question, where you have almost eliminated several answers, but are stuck with 2, and you are not sure which one is right, select one of those right answers and write down this question number under the second column. Mostly this happens, when there are two answers and both seem to be right, or which one is "more" right.

When you come across those questions, where you have no clue what they are talking about, and you just don't know the answer, select some answer and record it under the 3rd column. Note of caution: Rarely you may come across an exam where a wrong answer actually carries a negative score. In such cases, leave it blank. You can still record it under column 3.

And so on and so forth. When you are done, go back to questions that you recorded under column 2 and column 3. DO NOT touch the answers for the questions in Column 1. Your first instinct is right. So do not even think of going back to them.

First go back to the questions under column 2, the 50-50 ones and review them. On second thoughts if you seem to know the right answer this time around, you can change it to the correct ones. This usually happens when after you have answered other questions, one of them may be related to this 50-50 question and your light bulb in your head suddenly goes on and now you know the right answer better.

Once you are done, if you still have the time, go to the questions you recorded under column 3. If you still have no clue, you can leave them alone.

Now comes the best part: You can calculate your approximate score.

1. Go to the first column, count the number of questions under this column and multiply the count with 0.83. Record this as your score under the first column.
2. Go to the second column, count the number of questions under this column and multiply the count with 0.5. Record this as your score under the second column.
3. Go to the third column, count the number of questions under this column and divide the count with the total number of choices for each question rounded off to the nearest integer. For eg., if there are 4 choices for each question, the probability that it is correct is 1/4 or .25 right? Or if there are 5 choices for each question, the probability is 1/5 or .20. Record this as your score under the third column.

Now add these three scores and this will give you an idea of what your score is going to look like.