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The Anatomy Of A GAMSAT MCQ: How They Make Them
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By Prepgenie
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The Anatomy Of A GAMSAT MCQ: How They Make Them
As a kid one always thought MCQs are a fun way of answering questions in an exam. So how did the GAMSAT test makers manage to suck out all the fun and make those MCQs a tool to test you for a serious career in medicine? Most people think of MCQs as being ‘easy' to solve. GAMSAT has taught you the hard way, how seriously far from the truth this is. MCQs that merely test ‘knowledge chunks' may be a piece of cake for those who by heart easily…but GAMSAT MCQs are designed to test application. To apply something to a new situation you have to both know and understand it well. Facts learnt in a classroom have to be practically applied in a real-world situation, a situation you may not have faced in a class while learning. Let's see an example:
Q: Argon is in the first row of the periodic table. Use this fact and find out the other elements that figure there too?
Here, you have to know the periodic table inside out, properties of the first row et al, to find out the other elements.
GAMSAT test paper setters apply various techniques to frame an MCQ. These MCQs then go through rigorous testing and feedback before they are finally approved for the D-day. Let's see a few ways they use to turn a benign MCQ into a GAMSAT behemoth:
Playing around with the question. The examiners sometimes directly lift a phrase from a textbook and then reformulate it to create a new question:
Original Q: "Real-world objects share two characteristics: they all have _____ and behaviour.
Answer: State
New Q: "If a dog is a certain colour, and you consider a dog an object, what is the name for the property that its colour indicates?"
Answer: State
Making options similar. By making th
e distracters quite similar to each other, examiners test the precision of your knowledge. So if you have learnt genetics well enough but don't have a thorough understanding of the ‘Mendellian law of dihybrid cross', you may get confused with the following question:
Q: Pleiotropic gene has
A. Multiple genotype
B. Single genotype
C. Single phenotype
D. Multiple phenotype
Answer: D
Placing double negatives. In the example that follows, the right answer is a false statement. Here, the "not…not" combination may confuse you during the exam.
Q: Which of the following is not true about Canada?
Answer: The country is not very densely populated.
Making the correct answer the simplest choice. In the following example, the most obvious and simplest answer (water) is the correct answer. Chances are you will think a lot over it, wondering "how can the right answer be so simple?" and this extra thinking may become your undoing.
Q: What is produced when an alkali reacts with an acid?
A. More alkali
B. More acid
C. Water
D. Hydrogen sulphate
Answer: C
These are just a few techniques GAMSAT test makers apply to make the MCQs. Love them, or hate them. You simply can't ignore them if you are a test taker. MCQs have become a med exam staple for the sheer simplicity of the process of evaluation with no discrepancies & faster results. Ticking off the right options in a GAMSAT OMR sheet may not be easy for you. But believe me: making the MCQs was equally painstaking for your examiner!
References
* http://www.ukcle.ac.uk/resources/trns/mcqs/index.html
* http://focalworks.in/resources/white_papers/creating_assessments/2-4.html
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_choice
Q: Argon is in the first row of the periodic table. Use this fact and find out the other elements that figure there too?
Here, you have to know the periodic table inside out, properties of the first row et al, to find out the other elements.
GAMSAT test paper setters apply various techniques to frame an MCQ. These MCQs then go through rigorous testing and feedback before they are finally approved for the D-day. Let's see a few ways they use to turn a benign MCQ into a GAMSAT behemoth:
Playing around with the question. The examiners sometimes directly lift a phrase from a textbook and then reformulate it to create a new question:
Original Q: "Real-world objects share two characteristics: they all have _____ and behaviour.
Answer: State
New Q: "If a dog is a certain colour, and you consider a dog an object, what is the name for the property that its colour indicates?"
Answer: State
Making options similar. By making th
Q: Pleiotropic gene has
A. Multiple genotype
B. Single genotype
C. Single phenotype
D. Multiple phenotype
Answer: D
Placing double negatives. In the example that follows, the right answer is a false statement. Here, the "not…not" combination may confuse you during the exam.
Q: Which of the following is not true about Canada?
Answer: The country is not very densely populated.
Making the correct answer the simplest choice. In the following example, the most obvious and simplest answer (water) is the correct answer. Chances are you will think a lot over it, wondering "how can the right answer be so simple?" and this extra thinking may become your undoing.
Q: What is produced when an alkali reacts with an acid?
A. More alkali
B. More acid
C. Water
D. Hydrogen sulphate
Answer: C
These are just a few techniques GAMSAT test makers apply to make the MCQs. Love them, or hate them. You simply can't ignore them if you are a test taker. MCQs have become a med exam staple for the sheer simplicity of the process of evaluation with no discrepancies & faster results. Ticking off the right options in a GAMSAT OMR sheet may not be easy for you. But believe me: making the MCQs was equally painstaking for your examiner!
References
* http://www.ukcle.ac.uk/resources/trns/mcqs/index.html
* http://focalworks.in/resources/white_papers/creating_assessments/2-4.html
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_choice
Tags & Keywords : GAMSAT, GAMSAT Preparation, GAMSAT Test, GAMSAT Courses, GAMSAT sample