You might have observed from previous experiences that many questions in single choice question papers follow some sort of a pattern that unintentionally help make the correct options predictable or at least help with cutting down on the incorrect ones.
Some of the commonly known ones are:
- Same option number shouldn’t be selected for multiple consecutive questions
- Options like ‘All of these’ and ‘None of these’ are mostly incorrect (though ‘All of these’ is relatively more used)
- The lengthier and more comprehensive option is usually the correct
- If all other options are proven incorrect then the leftover one has to be correct
- If the same option is shared between multiple questions, all of them shouldn’t be correct simultaneously
Are there any other patterns you observed?
My strategy is to remember that the question is not some neutral fact, but that it was written by a specific person who usually has some kind of axe to grind and who uses the question to promote or require you to document your understanding of that belief. If you know the agenda of the question writer, you can find the expected answer. Even better, they often telegraph that agenda in the text of the question.