| The most common trait found in underachieving | | | | Don't assume what the questions are asking. As |
| test takers of the police written exam is | | | | you read the entire question watch for key |
| carelessly reading or misreading directions and | | | | direction words or phrases. The question may ask |
| questions. | | | | you to choose what is NOT the correct answer. |
| To be successful on the police written exam you | | | | If you fail to catch these words or phrases your |
| must understand exactly what the test maker | | | | answers will be wrong. |
| wants. The right answer to a question not asked | | | | You can avoid careless mistakes when reading |
| is the wrong answer and will result in no credit. | | | | questions by consciously looking for keywords |
| Misreading or careless reading of directions and | | | | and phrases that direct you to exactly what the |
| questions often result in test takers jumping to | | | | test maker wants: watch for words like DOESN'T, |
| conclusions. This mistake leads to a test taker | | | | NOT, SHOW, COMPARE, EXCEPT, etc. |
| scoring far below his or her knowledge level. In | | | | As an example, One of the methods often used |
| other words, someone who has taken months to | | | | in police training is the use of lectures. A question |
| study for a particular exam may end up with a | | | | might ask which of the following is NOT an |
| much lower score than those who took far less | | | | advantage of the lecture method of training. If |
| time to study because they failed to carefully | | | | you miss the word NOT you will be looking for |
| read and understand the directions. | | | | the wrong answer. This is a frequent mistake |
| Don't jump to conclusions about what is being | | | | made by test takers. |
| asked by the examiner. You must read all the | | | | It is important to understand every key word in |
| directions and entire question before you write | | | | the question in order to know what the test |
| down your answer. Don't read part of the | | | | taker wants. Learn the meaning of test direction |
| directions or part of the question and assume you | | | | words such as COMPARE, CONTRAST, |
| know what is being asked or what the | | | | EVALUATE, CITE, DIFFERENTIATE, etc. By |
| instructions are - if you do, you may miss a | | | | learning these direction words you will know |
| keyword or phrase and choose an incorrect | | | | exactly what the examiner wants you to do. |
| answer. | | | | |