Multiple‑Choice Exam Tips

The tips below have helped me pass multiple‑choice technical exams.

Study

All the tips in the next section may slightly improve your score, but the biggest impact will always come from your study.

  • Start with the blueprint. Identify all topics of each section and focus on them.
  • Find a good course
  • Read the documentation
  • Lab is strongly recommended
  • Mock exam with allowed materials only

Tips

Tip 1: Guess what will be in the exam while studying

Imagine yourself in the position of the person writing the questions and keep this mindset while studying.
Trust your intuition when it tells you that something will be in the exam, and study this area with extra attention.

Tip 2: Last minute revision for topics to know by heart

From the blueprint analysis and Tip 1, you will identify topics to know by heart. For example, default settings or maximum values.
It is a pure memorization exercise… and I am not good at it.
If you are like me, review them on the last and same day before the exam.

You can forget them after that. Some of these values may change from one version to the next one anyway, so it is probably better to assume the worst and always check the latest up-to-date documentation during any project.

Tip 3: Read and understand the questions and the replies

You have probably already read this tip elsewhere, but it must be repeated again and again.
Even if I know it, I forget it sometimes and notice errors during the final review.

Tip 4: Eliminate wrong answers

Another common tip.
Even if you don’t know the correct answer, most of the time it is possible to remove one or two answers.
Example: You recognize a technology name in one of the options and you know it is irrelevant in this context.

Tip 5: Extrapolate the reply for one question from another question

In rare cases, it is possible to find the reply to one question from another one if both questions cover similar topics.
If you flag both questions, and in the review switch from one to the other, you may find the correct answer.
You may even get the correct answers for both.

Tip 6: Find patterns in the replies (The desperate tip)

For some questions, you could identify a pattern in the replies.
Example:
AA AB BB BA. Then the answer is most likely AB or BA.
ABC ABD EFG JKL. If you know C is wrong, then maybe it was there to create confusion with the correct reply: ABD.

𝗪𝗔𝗥𝗡𝗜𝗡𝗚: This is not an exact science. A curveball is possible, for example, if the person who wrote the question has anticipated this reasoning and used something like ABC, BCA, ACB, D… and the good reply is actually D.

Tip 7: At the end of the exam, review all questions, not only the flagged ones

When you review all questions, you may find new clues and may be able to correct a few of them. Especially if you didn’t follow Tip 3.

Note: Some exams will not give you enough time to do this.

Tip 8: Identify what to study later

For some questions hopefully few you will simply not know.
Take a mental note of it, and study the topic after the exam.
It is useful in case of a failed exam, obviously, but it is also useful after a pass.
After all, the goal of studying for a certification is to gain knowledge.

Tip 9: Attempt many exams to improve your intuition and efficiency

You will notice after passing many exams that it is much easier to guess in Tip 1, but you will also be more efficient at practicing the other tips. Except Tip 2… I still do not have a good solution for the by heart questions.

Impact of these tips on final exam score

This is an estimation based on my own experience.
As mentioned earlier, studying has the highest impact.
The numbers below assume an exam with 80 questions.

  • Tip 1 and 2: It helps for 3 to 5 tricky questions.
  • Tip 3: If you don’t do it, expect to fail 2 to 3 questions.
  • Tip 4: With proper study, it should help for a maximum of 15 questions. Ideally, these should be small uncertainties rather than complete guesses.
  • Tip 5: If lucky, you can get the correct answers for 2 or 3.
  • Tip 6: Maybe 1 or 2… if lucky. There could be a curveball. It is a desperate tip for a reason.
  • Tip 7: Maybe you will correct 1 or 2. Normally your first intuition is often the right one.
  • Tip 8: Very high impact for the next attempt.
  • Tip 9: May slightly improve everything above.

Conclusion: Good as a learning tool only

I think multiple‑choice technical exams are not good enough to validate a candidate’s skills for two reasons.

  • It is possible to get a correct answer without having full expertise on a topic, especially by using Tips 4,5,6 or simply by luck.
  • Cheating is too easy because multiple‑choice questions are simple to duplicate and therefore can be leaked or sold.

I’ve been thinking about a possible replacement for this exam model, and I will publish it soon.

Despite these flaws, I believe the real value of these exams lies in the learning process itself.
They serve as useful milestones for students who are building foundational knowledge in a new technology.