What is Intelligent Guess in FMGE (Educated guess)?
Choosing an answer to the FMGE MCQ when the information in the question doesn’t provide sufficient insight to you to answer the FMGE MCQ completely is called Intelligent Guess or Educated Guess.
When do we use Intelligent Guess in FMGE (Educated Guess)?
There is no substitute for knowing your material however there are ways to use the information presented in the stem to make an educated guess when you can’t remember your material.
How to use Intelligent Guess in FMGE (Educated guess)?
Trust your educated guess & the first-guess answer comes from somewhere in the deep recesses of your unconscious memory bank (high likelihood of being correct according to educational researches).
Eliminate completely irrelevant alternatives → Analyze the remaining options → Choose the most appropriate one which satisfies the question.
Every question counts & Don’t leave any answers blank even though guessing can make you uncomfortable.
Magic of (b) or (c): Most of the students & toppers share that (b) or (c) tend to be correct statistically when the question is absolutely unknown (According to psychology it’s believed that b/c are masked by the distractors in a & d, therefore, examiners tend to make b/c as a correct choice).
Important note on All or None of the Above option: Choose this option when you feel more than one option/choice is probably correct/incorrect.
Can we Change the answer choices in the FMGE?
Yes, only once you are sure about the mistake made.
Changing once vs twice: the scores improved when students changed their answers once (57.8%: Wrong to right & 20.2%: Right to wrong) but further changes of answers did not improve the scores.
Change the hunch-based, first-guess answer: only if you have overlooked a significant qualifying word or you can think of an obvious.
Why are we scared to change the answers most of the time?
It’s psychologically explained by the Von Restorff effect: our brains try to retain the events that are unusual/unfavorable therefore based on such events we tend to be apprehended about changing the options that might be wrong!
What are the pitfalls in changing the answer choices in the FMGE?
When you are anxious, feeling emotionally vulnerable, or overtired, you will have a tendency to second-guess yourself into wrong answers.
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