United States
Hong KongEliminating wrong answers
With no penalty for a wrong answer, eliminating even one option makes a guess worth taking. The eliminations that work are structural rather than about content you do not know.
A technique worth a few marks, and worth more on the questions you were going to lose anyway.
The arithmetic of guessing
Four options and no penalty. A blind guess is worth taking. Eliminating one option improves it, and eliminating two makes it a coin flip on a question you would otherwise have scored nothing on. Guessing by shape is guessing.
There is never a reason to leave a question blank on this paper.
Eliminations that work
- On calculations: any option that is not the right order of magnitude
- On controlled substances: any option applying a rule from a schedule the stem did not name
- On patient safety: any option that addresses a different risk from the one described
- Anywhere: an option that answers a question the stem did not ask
The order-of-magnitude check
On a dosing question, work out roughly what the answer should be before calculating precisely. A 20 kg child is not receiving 600 mL of a suspension. Flag and move.
That check costs two seconds and often removes two options.
The old multiple-choice folklore - longest option, avoid absolutes, pick C. The distractors here are built from real candidate errors rather than assembled as filler, so they are the same length and the same register as the key. Guessing by shape is guessing.
Absolutes are not automatically wrong
On most exams an option saying never or always is suspicious. On this one, "Schedule II prescriptions may not be refilled" is both absolute and correct.
Federal rules contain genuine absolutes, so the usual heuristic actively misleads here.
Read the qualifier in the stem
Most, first, best, directly. A question asking what a technician should do first has a different answer from one asking what should happen.
Half the eliminations available on this paper come from reading the stem properly rather than from knowing more.
Flag and move
If two options survive and you cannot separate them, pick one, flag it, and come back. Your first instinct is recorded and the question is not costing you time you need elsewhere. Two seconds, two options.
Common questions
Should I guess on the PTCB exam?
Always. There is no penalty for a wrong answer.
What eliminations actually work?
Wrong order of magnitude, rules from the wrong schedule, controls addressing a different risk, and answers to a question that was not asked.
Does "pick the longest option" work?
No. Distractors here are built from real candidate errors, not assembled as filler.
Are absolute options wrong?
Not on this exam. Federal rules contain genuine absolutes.
What if two options survive?
Pick one, flag it, move on, and come back.