Scoring Your Practice Test
After you take your practice test, you’ll no doubt want to score it and see how you did. But
don’t just tally up your raw score. As a part of your scoring, you should keep a precise list
of every question you got wrong and every question you skipped. This list will be your
guide when you study your test.
Studying Your... No, Wait, Go Take a Break
You know how to have fun. Go do that for a while. Then come back when you’re
refreshed.
Studying Your Practice Test
After grading your test, you should have a list of the questions you answered incorrectly
or skipped. Studying your test involves going down this list and examining each question
you answered incorrectly. Make sure not just to learn the right answer but also to
understand why you got the question wrong and what you could have done to get the
question right.
Why Did You Get the Question Wrong?
There are three main reasons why you might have gotten an individual question wrong.
- You thought you knew the answer, but, actually, you didn’t.
- You couldn’t answer the question directly, but you knew the general principles
involved. Using this knowledge, you managed to eliminate some answer choices
and then guessed among the remaining answers; sadly, you guessed incorrectly. - You knew the answer but somehow made a careless mistake.
You should know which of these reasons applies to every question you got wrong.
What You Could Have Done to Get the Question Right
If You Got a Question Wrong for Reason 1 or 2: Lack of Knowledge
Reasons (1) and (2) are variants of one another, and there is a pretty smooth continuum
that runs between them. Both result from a lack of knowledge of some of the principles of
physics. Discovering a wrong answer in this domain gives you an opportunity to target
your weakness. When addressing that weakness, make sure that you don’t just look at the
facts. For example, if you got a question wrong that dealt with resistors in parallel, don’t
just memorize the rule for calculating the total resistance of a set of resistors in parallel.
Ultimately, you want to understand why that rule is the way it is. And don’t stop there.
You should next review resistors in series and DC circuits in general. Make sure you’re
comfortable with Kirchhoff’s Rules: they’re useful in sorting out how current and voltage
work in a circuit.
When studying the questions you got wrong, always remember that it’s important to
focus on the essence of each question and to understand the principles that would lead
you to a correct answer on similar questions.