UW and USMLE:They Usually Tell You Which Ones are the Wrong Answers in The Stem of the Question. Rule them out!

Very well known strategy for approaching usmle questions is first to look for the right answer, if you can’t get it, start ruling out the wrong answers. It is easy to say but difficult to do for few reasons:

1. Limited information showing you why the corresponding answer is the erroneous one. For the right answer they usually give you on average at least 3 clues/key words explained in 2-3 sentences. That makes the biggest part of the question. This is you first goal. Find the biggest and obvious hints.

For the incorrect answers they give you only one sentence or sometimes only one word, which can help you in the elimination. So, if you weren’t able to figure out the right answer based on that much information, imagine how difficult is to eliminate the incorrect answers leaning on only few words. Not easy, indeed, but it’s not impossible. Some of the wrong answers are very obviously incorrect and you can get to the point to make a pick between only 2 answers. From now on, you know what to do. The ratio is 50:50. Make your educated guess and continue.

2. Time factor. You spend one minute to find out which is the correct answer. If this one minute wasn’t enough, how much longer you will tose out the incorrect answers. Another 4 minutes? Nooo, this is too much. 20-30 seconds is the maximum time you can afford. If you still hesitate, make your educated guess and continue with the next question.