Question Tackling Methods...

[DMB5mil]

So I'm trying to plan how to tackle each question. From the boards it appears there are two theories on this:

(1) Attempt each problem from first to last.

(2) Sort problems by perceived level of difficulty, then answer from easiest to hardest.

What do past test takers have to say on this subject? Any other methods you recommend?

What about doing problems by topic, topics you are most comfortable with first? I like this method because it sorts by subject (effectively sorting by difficulty like No. 2) but is more methodical than No. 2.

I appreciate the argument that mental energy is wasted by jumping around, but also agree that covering the subjects you know the best is an effective strategy too.

Thanks and good luck to all,

Brian

PS Are the questions sorted by subject on the exam?

 

[benbo]

So I'm trying to plan how to tackle each question. From the boards it appears there are two theories on this:
(1) Attempt each problem from first to last.

(2) Sort problems by perceived level of difficulty, then answer from easiest to hardest.

What do past test takers have to say on this subject? Any other methods you recommend?

What about doing problems by topic, topics you are most comfortable with first? I like this method because it sorts by subject (effectively sorting by difficulty like No. 2) but is more methodical than No. 2.

I appreciate the argument that mental energy is wasted by jumping around, but also agree that covering the subjects you know the best is an effective strategy too.

Thanks and good luck to all,

Brian

PS Are the questions sorted by subject on the exam?

I know a lot of people like to sort them.

At first, I just went through from the beginning working the ones I felt fairly comfortable with, then went back.

In the AM I worked almost all the way through before I found some I wanted to skip.

In the PM I was at least five questions in before I found one I was halfway comfortable with. So after that I went through to find the "easier" ones and worked those to get some confidence.

 

[Techie_Junkie_PE_LEED_AP]

Personally, I felt that reading through all the questions enough to rank them was wasting too much time. As it was, I ran out of time on the PM and had to guess at two questions.

For both AM & PM, I started with the first question and worked it until 5 or 6 minutes passed. If I hadn't answered it yet, I did one of two things:

1) If I was fairly sure I was close to the right answer, I filled in the answer sheet in case I ran short of time, at least I had an answer that wasn't a complete guess ; or

2) Left it blank if I was clueless or not close to an answer.

IN EITHER CASE, I FLAGGED THESE AND MOVED ON TO THE NEXT QUESTION.

Every few questions, I would check to MAKE SURE if I was answering question #10, I was on #10 on the bubble answer sheet!

When I got to the end,

I went back and started reworking the blank bubbles. (If you ran out of time here, you could guess at these quickly and not have any blank answer bubbles.)

Then I went back to rework the "answered but unsure" questions. I made it to this point on the AM with 5 min to spare. As I said above, I didn't make it to this stage on PM and had to guess at 2 questions to leave no blanks.

This worked well for me, passed 1st time.

Hope this helps, and GOOD LUCK!! :th_rockon:

 

[Jennifer]

I went through from front to back and answered every one I could do "quickly" so to speak. I dog eared everyone I couldn't answer or knew it would take me a while to answer...then i went back through a second pass...then a third. I went through by how fast I could find what I needed, saving the ones I had to search for answers for last. In the morning I had plenty of time to hit all the quesitons. In the afternoon, not as much.

 

[Kuku]

DMB5mil,

There is no correct method. You've got to do what works best for you. Obviously you've had success taking major tests in the past, so work from your own experiences. Changing your style to match others, especially this late in the game, would be a mistake.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

I went through from front to back and answered every one I could do "quickly" so to speak. I dog eared everyone I couldn't answer or knew it would take me a while to answer...then i went back through a second pass...then a third.

That's what I did, and it worked for me!

 

[snickerd3]

In the morning I had plenty of time to hit all the quesitons. In the afternoon, not as much.

For me it was just the opposite, the morning was heavy in quantitative questions and I could have used more time and the afternoon was mostly qualitative questions so I had plenty to spare.

 

[mudpuppy]

For me it was just the opposite, the morning was heavy in quantitative questions and I could have used more time and the afternoon was mostly qualitative questions so I had plenty to spare.

I had the same experience with the EE exam. It seemed there were more experiential questions in the afternoon module.

 

[roadwreck]

Wikipedia has quite a lot of information on various tackling methods

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tackle

 

[Dexman1349]

Wikipedia has quite a lot of information on various tackling methods
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tackle

THat's how I did it. I don't think the proctors were very pleased with the noise it created or the condition of my question booklet when I was done though...

The exam attempted a couple of nicely timed spin moves that resulted in a table and a chair getting broken, but in the end, I think I did an adequate job. I passed anyways...

Realistically though, do what you're comfortable with. I did all of the questions in order. If after 4 or 5 minutes I wasn't relatively close to a reasonable answer, I would write a few quick notes (including reference page numbers) to help me get restarted later and I moved on. If you do this MAKE SURE YOU FILL IN THE RIGHT BUBBLES if you skip a problem. I had to redo about 5 or 6 answers because i skipped a question in the book but didn't skip a bubble on the answer sheet. Luckily I had enough time to fix it, but it was time I could have spent in better situations.

 

[snickerd3]

If you do this MAKE SURE YOU FILL IN THE RIGHT BUBBLES if you skip a problem. I had to redo about 5 or 6 answers because i skipped a question in the book but didn't skip a bubble on the answer sheet. Luckily I had enough time to fix it, but it was time I could have spent in better situations.

Same thing happened to me.

 

[Jennifer]

Same thing happened to me.

I'm so glad someone else has that problem. I didn't last time, but I have before.