Multiple choice questions: tricky or path to easy marks?

When it comes to Business Studies, students have to navigate 20 ‘multis’ as part of the HSC Exam. I tell students to spend 20 minutes, maximum, on this section. Don’t go over. You’re sacrificing valuable time on the more valuable sections!

But multis are difficult. You don’t have the opportunity to explain your response. You might be second guessing yourself the whole way through. You might encounter a really complex question that threatens to steal your time. 

So, here are some strategies specifically for Business Studies multis.

Tip one: Make it a 50/50

In my experience, Business Studies multis have two similar answers and two answers that have no ‘business’ being there. For every question, start by eliminating the least likely responses. Reduce the chances for mistakes.

Tip two: Do the work before you see the answer categories

Spend some time with the question before you peep the answer categories. Put down some ideas on the key ideas and the likely answers. Annotate the question. This will prime your brain to zoom in on the most likely responses when you do look at the categories. 

Tip three: Know your enemy

The most time consuming multis are the Finance questions. These have formulas, calculations and the chance of numerical errors. Know these questions will come up. Try and speed up the earlier questions and save valuable time for the Finance ones. Also, practice as many Finance multis as you can.

I’ve done a few walkthroughs for the Business Studies HSC exam. Check out my videos below. You’ll see my process in action.