Answering multiple choice questions in HSC PDHPE exams is often the thing students practice rarely and understand the least. Multiple choice questions are written at various levels and are used to help separate students into the 6 bands. It is worth reading through the multiple choice questions three (3) times and answering different level questions each time.
First time through multiple choice questions
The first time through the multiple choice questions there are two (2) things you need to do:
The first is that you should answer the multiple choice questions that seem to have the easier and obvious answers. This means reading the question, and if you know the answer – answer it. Eg)
- Which of the following terms describes the level of illness in a given population?
(A) Mortality
(B) Morbidity
(C) Prevalence
(D) Health status
HSC PDHPE Exam 2014
Answer B
The second thing you should do as you read through the multiple choice questions the first time is to cross out the answers you know are wrong for the questions you are unsure of. Eg)
5. Which of the following has contributed most to the declining prevalence of
cardiovascular disease (CVD) in Australia?
(A) Improved community awareness and treatment of CVD
(B) Improved nutritional quality of food consumed by Australians
(C) Increased levels of organised sport participation and exercise by those at
risk of CVD
(D) Increased numbers of alternative health professionals and volunteers
working with those at risk of CVD
HSC PDHPE Exam 2014
Here answers (B) and (C) have been eliminated because they do not affect CVD at all, but (D) and (A) have because it is possible that both have helped to decline prevalence of CVD.
As you read through, mark the multiple choice questions that you do not answer. This will make them faster to find on your second reading, saving you time during the exam.
The second time through multiple choice questions
The second time you go through your multiple choice questions you should try and figure out which of the answers is the BEST answer. If we continue with our example above,
5. Which of the following has contributed most to the declining prevalence of
cardiovascular disease (CVD) in Australia?
(A) Improved community awareness and treatment of CVD
(B) Improved nutritional quality of food consumed by Australians
(C) Increased levels of organised sport participation and exercise by those at
risk of CVD
(D) Increased numbers of alternative health professionals and volunteers
working with those at risk of CVD
HSC PDHPE Exam 2014
We note that the question itself uses the term MOST (in red). This term is much the same as asking, which answer is best as it opens up the possibility that more than one multiple choice answer has contributed, but they want to know which one has contributed more. With this in mind, we would select the answer as (A) to this multiple choice question, because it has definitely had a larger impact than (D).
The final time through multiple choice questions
On your final go with the multiple choice questions in the HSC PDHPE exam you can take a guess. By this point, you would have read through all your questions three times and thought through the answers provided. You would have eliminated the most unlikely answers and have selected the best answers for others. Now, you can guess, if you still are unsure of the answer to the multiple choice question. By having eliminated the wrong answers, this will increase your chances of getting the multiple choice question right, possibly from a 25% chance to a 50% chance (even without re-reading it).
What not to do
Whatever you do with your exam, DO NOT leave any question blank, particularly the multiple choice questions. If you take a guess, even on your first time through you have a 25% chance of getting it right. These are pretty good odds. But, if you don’t select an answer your odds are 0%, you cannot get a mark for this multiple choice question. You should never leave any HSC PDHPE exam question blank, but even more; you should not leave a multiple choice question blank.
So, in summary:
- Read through, answer the obvious multiple choice questions and eliminate the wrong answers
- Read through the answers left again, and seek to select the most correct or best answer to the multiple choice question
- Finally, read the remaining multiple choice questions again and take your educated guess.
This should help improve your HSC PDHPE result, particularly in the multiple choice question section, provided you DO NOT leave any multiple choice question blank!
