Multiple choice, multiple answers: living with negative marking

With a multiple-answer question the temptation is to tick everything that might be true, on the theory that more ticks mean more chances. In this task type that theory can work against you, because a wrong tick can take marks away. The skill is to tick what the passage supports and leave the rest.

What a wrong tick can cost

Pearson's score guide describes partial credit for this question type, with marks deducted for incorrect choices. Read the current wording yourself, because scoring rules can change, and know exactly how it works before test day.

The practical effect is simple. Every tick is a small bet. If you can point to a line in the passage, it is a good bet. If you are ticking because the statement sounds sensible, or because it is true in real life, you are risking marks you had already earned from the safe options. Leaving a doubtful option unticked is not a failure of nerve. It is a decision.

A method you can run in a couple of minutes

1. Read the question and the options first, so you know what you are looking for.
2. Read the passage once for the overall point.
3. Take the options one at a time. For each one, find a line that supports it, a line that contradicts it, or nothing at all.
4. Tick only the ones that are supported. "Contradicts" and "nothing" both stay unticked: "not mentioned" is not the same as "false", but it is not supported either.
5. Do not tick to reach a number. The instructions say more than one answer is correct, not how many.

Watch the extreme words

Always, never, only, all, none, every, completely and must make a statement hard to support, because academic writers like careful words such as often, tend to, some and most. If an option says "every neighbour" and the passage says "some neighbours", that one word is the whole difference.

An extreme word is a warning, not a verdict. If the passage itself says "all", then an option with "all" can be right. Check the line.

A worked example

An illustrative passage of my own, with five options. Decide which statements the passage supports.

• A: tick. "Lend the land for five years" is a limited period, said in different words.
• B: leave. The passage says the council "pays nothing towards running costs", which is the opposite.
• C: tick. The surplus vegetables are sold at a stall, and the herbs go to a coffee shop.
• D: leave. "Every" is extreme, and the passage mentions neighbours who worried.
• E: leave. A greenhouse is something the group hopes to add. A hope is not a fact.

The answer is A and C. Now suppose you had only been sure of A. Ticking A alone earns part of the marks and risks nothing, whereas adding B on a hunch could take marks back.

A fifteen-minute audit

After each multiple-answer question you practise, do this:

1. For every option you ticked, write the line of the passage that supports it. If you cannot find one, you ticked on feel.
2. For every option you left, write whether it was contradicted or simply not mentioned.
3. Label each error: ticked without evidence, missed a paraphrase, or misread an extreme word.

After ten questions the biggest label is your habit, and that is what to fix first. You can also build your own practice: take a news paragraph and write five statements, two supported, one contradicted, one not mentioned and one extreme. Leave them until tomorrow, then answer your own question.

For a next step, try a multiple-answer question in the practice tests on this site and write out the evidence line for each tick. If single-answer questions are the weaker side, see the single-answer method, and for tracking mistakes over several weeks, keeping an error log.