Basic Type multiple choice Questions

When a life insurance application is submitted to an insurance company without the first premium, the application has the legal status of 

(A) an acceptance.
(B) a condition precedent to performance.
(C) consideration.
(D) an invitation to offer insurance.

This "basic" multiple choice question requires the student to complete the statement by selecting the correct choice among the four options. Many other "basic" questions on the examination will require a calculation to produce the answer. In any event, with a "basic" question, only one option is correct and the other three options are incorrect. You need to find the piece of the puzzle that fits the open space. In many cases, a matching question requires students to perform essentially a similar task. The student is matching pieces of a puzzle. Thus, matching questions are in many cases just straight multiple choice questions.

Even before you start to look for the right answer or the piece that fits the puzzle, you need to be certain you understand the intent of the question. You must be clear about what is being asked. In the sample question, for example, the student is asked to find the phrase that describes the legal status of the life insurance application. A student who reads the first part of the question about an application submitted without the first premium may jump to the conclusion the question is about the payment of premiums. The student is then thinking about the element that is missing for a contract. The student may see the word "consideration" and select choice (C). The student has missed the intention of the question and jumped to a wrong answer. You must approach a question with the idea of answering only the one question asked.

After you have determined the intent of the question, you should begin to use the process of elimination. For the straight multiple choice question, the process of elimination should be used to discover the answers which are incorrect. By removing the incorrect answers, the field is narrowed. Hopefully, the field can be narrowed to one choice, which is correct. If you know or have learned the course information required to answer this question, you can probably identify the correct choice after simply reading the options. But let's suppose you do not know the answer from the first reading. You should still follow the process of elimination to narrow the field.

Let's say you are able to eliminate choices (B) and (C). Just from what you do know about the life insurance application and the law of life insurance contracts, you are able to conclude that choices (B) and (C) make no sense. You are unsure, however, whether submission of the application without a premium is an acceptance or an invitation for an offer. In other words, choices (A) and (D) seem plausible. You have now narrowed the field to the two most likely choices. Your chances of getting the right answer have now improved from 25% to 50%. Do not agonize among the two choices. Make your educated guess, mark the question for review, and move on to the next question.

For some questions you will be able to narrow the field to two choices, and you will probably get about 50% of those questions right. The increase in percentages that moves you from 25% to 33-1/3% or to 50% will mean an increase in your score. This increase in your percentages can be the difference between passing and not passing. For example, suppose out of 100 questions you can find the correct answer for 50 questions, you can narrow the field to two choices in 20 more questions, and you can narrow the field to three choices in 15 more questions. What is your score likely to be? It will likely be 69%. In addition to the 50 questions for which you knew the answer, you will be likely to get 10 of the questions right that you narrowed to two choices, and you will be likely to get 5 of the questions right that you narrowed to three choices. Of the remaining 15 questions, you still have a 25% chance of getting the right answer and will probably get three more correct. Your total is 69%.

Notice this process of elimination will work best for you if you use it with all of the questions. You must read and answer every question in order to make these percentages work for you. Moreover, you must read every option to be sure you have used the process of elimination correctly. You should practice using this process of elimination in answering the questions in the simulated examination.

The correct answer to question 1 is (D).