Look at the note on the extract from the passage
Africa: well-defined, clear-cut boundary, enormous landmass, unsegregated, foreign influences.
What has been done in the note is to bring out all the words in bold print in the passage. Going by the bold prints, the multiple-choice questions I and 2 can easily be answered.
Question 1: requires you to understand the meaning of the word “well- defined” which has been put in bold print. By inference “well-defined” cannot mean “ill- structured” which is the second option. It cannot also mean “can be defined” because it is “well-defined” so the correct option is (C) which means African boundaries are clearly marked.
Question 2: requires you to gather all the words made bold in the extract above together. These words are: enormous landmass, unsegregated and foreign influence and unity. By focusing on these words, you can guess their meanings as:
Enormous – Large
Unsegregated- Unisolated
Foreign influence– Infiltrated
Unity– United
By focusing on the words that are made bold in the extract of the passage, you can then see (d) as the answer.
What are we saying here? In studying for multiple-choice examination make sure you pay attention to the major words, technical terms and points that are highlighted.
Details may not be very necessary in studying for multiple-choice examination questions: But in some courses (e.g. Medicine) where many terms are required to be learnt, details may be important.
Know the material
Since the answer to an objective question is either right or wrong, you must know your material very well. For example, words like not, always, constantly, frequently, etc in the material may be used to confuse you, while giving you options. You must pay particular attention to such words. For example, in Question 3 the word antipathy in the third paragraph of the passage is very important to getting the clue to the answer. If in the course of studying the passage your attention is not drawn to this word, you will find the answer to the question difficult. Sometimes details matter in studying for multiple choice examination.
During a Multiple-choice Examination, you should take note of the following
- Be careful: Read the questions carefully. Sometimes the words like not, only, but, through, off’, etc may make a big difference. You may miss the answer if your attention is not drawn to these words.
- Eliminate obviously wrong answers: Some answers are obviously wrong. Eliminate these first. Then think more deeply on the options (or detractors) that are very
- Follow the instructions: Sometimes you may require shading, ticking (P), or underlining the correct answer; if you do not do what you are asked to do, your paper may be
Studying for Short- answer Examinations
Short-answer examinations require you to insert a word, a phrase, a sentence in a gap. It may require you to match, complete, list, outline, etc. The difference between short-answer examination and the multiple- choice examination is that options are not given in short-answer examination.
