So I was lying in bed at 11pm, this being exam week and having slept for 5 hours last night cramming for physio exam this morning, but somehow I just cannot fall asleep?

And so I was thinking back on the phys paper done this morning, and while mentally killing myself for a few silly mistakes I made, I recalled that a couple of questions bothered me during the exam itself.

Eg:
What increases blood flow in the circulatory system?
A) An increase in pH
B) An increase in mean arterial pressure
C) A decrease in mean arterial pressure
D) The presence of aldosterone
E) All of the above

Well, option E surely cannot be right, because of the presence of options B and C. I mean, how can mean arterial pressure both increase and decrease at the same time? Furthermore, placing 2 options which directly opposes each other as a choice highly suggests that the correct answer is either one of the 2. This question is clearly testing the relationship between blood flow and arterial pressure, and the rest of the options are just 'filler-options'.

Eg:
Which of the hormones/enzymes below would you expect to find in elevated levels when blood pressure is low?
A) Cortisol and acetylcholine
B) Renin and adrenaline
C) Renin and angiotensin-converting-enzyme
D) Renin and glucagon
E) Renin and insulin

Erm... it seems that renin must be included in the right answer, since 80% of the options contain renin as an enzyme. If renin is not an enzyme in elevated levels, then the question would be far too easy to solve by elimination. By this reasoning, then option A is clearly wrong, even if the student has no clue whether renin levels increase or not.

These questions are not badly set; they still serve their purposes by having a right and wrong answer. However, I think that good multiple choice questions should have all the options having an equal possibility of being the right answer. Also, the choice of which option is correct should also be made based on subjective knowledge and not logical deductions. Lol, I really should not be complaining if the questions end up being easier to answer, I think this is sleepy-and-brain-has-been-overdriven me talking right now...

Ohoh! And I also remembered being highly amused by the example used in the short-structured question. To illustrate a situation of a massive haemorrage, the scenario started off with

'A man has his leg bitten off by a bear...'

HAHAHA!

I guess I should be more empathic, but really??? Is this the best example you can come up with? (Hmm, I remember finding this a lot funnier during the exam itself, but not so much now...)



(just in case you have gruesome images of bear maulings in your head!)