How to Answer Multiple-choice Questions

　　-Relevant to All Foundations in Accountancy Papers and ACCA Qualification Papers F1, F2 and F3 Exams for all papers in the Foundations in Accountancy qualification and Papers F1, F2 and F3 in the ACCA Qualification, whether computer based or paper based, will comprise multiple-choice questions (MCQs).

　　Answering MCQs successfully requires you to develop a range of skills and exam techniques. Taking the steps set out below will help you to maximise your marks in these papers.

　　Prepare to pass

　　As with any assessment, the golden rule for success is to prepare thoroughly. It is not unusual for ACCA examiners' reports to note that some candidates were not adequately prepared for the exam. In many cases, candidates attempt to compensate for inadequate preparation by 'question spotting', or concentrating on a small number of 'pet' topics. These approaches to preparation are extremely risky and are always strongly discouraged by examiners - for good reason.

　　As each MCQ relates to a specific issue within the syllabus, each exam will include broad coverage of the syllabus. This means that to maximize your chances of success you must have studied the whole syllabus.

　　You may be lucky enough to find that a particular MCQ is on a topic which was part of your most recent studies, but this will not be the case with the vast majority of the questions you will face.

　　Of course, it is essential that you use all of the questions carefully and follow up on all of your answers. Whether a question was answered correctly or incorrectly during exam preparation, it will provide an opportunity to enhance your understanding of the topic. By reflecting on why a specific option is correct, you can improve your understanding, while reflecting on why the other options are wrong can help to overcome misunderstanding and eliminate confusion. When attempting questions as part of your preparation, it is useful to remember that the key purpose of the exercise is to enhance your understanding - not just to get the right answer.

　　When reviewing each option, it is important to ensure that you understand exactly what the underlying point is - and to make sure that you reflect on this to enhance your learning.

　　Read the question

　　The amount of time, effort, and discussion that is put into each question before it appears in an exam is likely to surprise most candidates. Every question is subjected to a number of rigorous reviews as it progresses from an idea in the writer's mind to the exam paper. These reviews mean that you need to read the question extremely carefully, remembering that the wording has been chosen deliberately. This is intended to ensure that the question is unambiguous and does not mislead candidates.

　　An example of the need to read the question carefully might be the way in which a question communicates cost information. It is not unusual for a question to relate to a production period of, say, three months, but for fixed costs to be stated as an annual figure. To get the correct answer, candidates must have recognised this fact. This is not an attempt to catch candidates out, but rather an attempt to ensure that candidates can apply the technique in a real-life situation, where information must be clearly understood and is frequently communicated in this way.

　　A further aspect is to recognise that the answer will be based on the data included in the question. There are two aspects to this. First, in order to ensure that questions are not too long, the data may have been simplified. To some candidates, this may seem to be unrealistic when compared to a real-life situation. A particular example of this is the way in which the labour cost is described in many questions. More often than not, direct labour is described as a variable cost, with no reference to the cost of laying off staff. For a candidate who has experience of staff rationalisation, this assumption will be totally unrealistic. While a longer question may provide the opportunity to critically examine the underlying assumptions, this is not possible in an MCQ and the question should be answered on the basis of the data provided. Second, only the data included in a question is required to obtain the answer. That means you should not waste time wondering about additional data, or inferring additional data into the question.

　　An example of this could be a question which tests the ability to calculate the closing balance on a ledger account. The question may give details of transactions during a period and a closing prepayment, but there may be no reference to an opening prepayment. In such cases, you can assume that this was nil. As already noted, the writer will have sought to keep the question as short as possible by omitting unnecessary words such as 'the opening prepayment was nil' or 'there was no opening prepayment'.

　　It is imperative that the prompt (the actual question that is to be answered) is read carefully. For example, a question may give information on receivables, irrecoverable debts, and required allowances for receivables. Here the prompt could require any of the following to be calculated:

　　¤ the movement on the allowance

　　¤ the closing receivables allowance

　　¤ the charge to the income statement or

　　¤ the net value of receivables to be reported on the statement of financial position

　　Rather than actually reading and noting the prompt, some candidates assume that they know what it is. This is usually on the basis of a question they have seen previously. More often than not, this approach leads to the wrong option being selected.

　　Think

　　It is a common fallacy that MCQs are easy. This is based on the fact that one of the options is the correct answer. Therefore, the argument goes, all you have to do is make the correct selection. While it is fair to say that some questions may be easy, that is usually because you have prepared thoroughly. Hopefully, this will happen in some questions, but it is more likely that the answer will not be obvious.

　　Other points

　　There are some other points on which you need to make decisions in order to maximise your marks. For each of these, the exam room is the wrong place to make the decision. It is essential that you have prepared thoroughly and have decided on your own approach to each of the following:

　　¤ Above all else, remember that you should not allow yourself to become so stuck on a question so that you run out of time. Generally speaking, exams are drafted so that the time spent on each part of a question is in proportion to the marks allocated. With MCQs, however, it may be that some candidates will find some questions are more straightforward than others, and can therefore be answered more quickly. For that reason, it may be better to consider the time allocation for a group of, say, five MCQs, rather than for each question individually.

　　¤ As there is no penalty for an incorrect answer in ACCA exams, there is nothing to be gained by leaving an MCQ unanswered. If you are stuck on a question, as a last resort, it is worth selecting the option you consider most likely to be correct, and moving on. Make a note of the question, so if you have time after you have answered the rest of the questions, you can revisit it.

　　¤ If you are sitting a paper-based exam, you must remember to record your answers to MCQs on your Candidate Registration Sheet (CRS), as this is the only way you can obtain the marks you deserve for all your efforts. Workings for MCQs are not marked, nor are answers written in script booklets as opposed to on the CRSs.

　　Conclusion

　　From this discussion, you can see that MCQs are not an easy option. Maximising your marks when attempting MCQs requires:

　　¤ sound preparation

　　¤ studying across the syllabus

　　¤ practising as many different types of question as possible

　　¤ developing your own strategy for different types of question

　　¤ thinking clearly in the exam

　　¤ working out your answers

　　¤ structuring your approach to the paper

　　¤ answering all the questions.

　　Taking this approach does not make answering MCQs easy, but it should mean that you get the marks you deserve.

　　Key learning points

　　¤ prepare thoroughly

　　¤ think clearly

　　¤ work out your answer

　　¤ structure your approach

　　¤ answer all of the questions.

　　Example：Sample question 1  Sample question 2  Sample question3  Sample question 4