More thoughts on OT questions

An objective test (OT) question is any question where there is one ‘right’ answer. No ‘almost’, no ‘that’s close enough’; it’s either right or wrong. Professional bodies like CIMA love OT questions, for two reasons. Firstly, they can be examined on computer, and the computer can ‘mark’ your answers. This is cheaper (as all the cost is in developing the technology, rather than paying markers) and faster (as the computer can tell you whether you passed or failed, and often give you feedback on your answers and skills straight after the exam. Secondly, each question can be short, often only one mark each, so an exam can cover most (or even all) of the learning outcomes/objectives, rather than just a selection.

Let’s have a look at a selection of OT question styles, just so you can see what I mean by ‘objective’. These questions were written for E1…

 

An organisation which does not have profit as its primary goal, and is not directly linked to a national government, is a .

non-profit organisation

non-governmental organisation

public sector organisation

 

In order to be of value for performance measurement, objectives should be expressed in a form which is ‘SMART’. Which of the following is NOT normally included in the SMART acronym?

Specific

Meaningful

Achievable

Relevant

Time-constrained

 

The concept of lean production was developed by the Japanese car manufacturer, Toyota. It is a philosophy that aims to systematically reduce waste. Which THREE of the following are included in Toyota’s concept of ‘waste’?

Inventory

Paper

Surplus staff

Transportation

Over-processing

 

Henry Mintzberg suggested a totally different way of looking at organisation structure. Drag and drop the following items into their correct places on the diagram above.

Operating core

Ideology

Support staff

 

Stakeholders outside the organisation are sometimes classified as either ‘external’ or ‘connected’. Drag and drop the following stakeholders into the correct category. External stakeholders Connected stakeholders           Finance providers   Government   Customers   Local community   Trade unions   Shareholders   Suppliers

 

You can see, from the above examples, that there is a wide range of OT question styles. They all have one thing in common, however – there’s a ‘right’ answer.

Although students, and many lecturers, think that exam technique doesn’t apply to OT questions, that’s far from true. There are many ‘rules’ you can apply, to make sure that you get as many marks as possible in such an exam. Let’s have a look at the most common.

• If you’re stuck, use a ‘process of elimination’, and rule out the options that are clearly not right. Remember Sherlock Holmes: “once you have ruled out the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the answer”.

• Don’t ‘leap in’, by selecting the first ‘possible’ answer. Always look at all of the options given, as there might be a ‘better’ answer, elsewhere.

• If it says ‘which THREE…’, don’t select fewer or more than the number specified. You’ll be wrong, and there aren’t any ‘part marks’ (i.e.2/3) available.

• It's often possible to rule out one or more of the answers as being completely unreasonable, so just guessing from the remaining possible answers may improve your chances of earning a mark (on a purely random basis).

• Believe it or not, it's still amazingly common for candidates to not answer some of their OT questions. You must, as there's no penalty for getting them wrong. Always, always have a guess at OT questions, even if you don't have a clue what they're about.  

Come to think of it, ‘have a go’ is quite a good bit of advice for any exam question. There are very few guarantees in exams, but one of them is – if you write nothing, you'll get no marks! I often see student answers with gaps, where the students have convinced themselves that they don't know anything, or haven't got a clue what the question means. It's always worth taking a guess, as there are no ‘negative’ (or penalty) marks in these exams.

So, to summarise, the key to avoiding the most common mistakes in OT exams is to slow down a bit. Don't be in too much of a hurry to answer, make sure that you know exactly what the question is before you do, and always ‘have a go’.