How do I get faster at test-taking?

multiple choice or essay?

I was hoping you would say that!

Assuming you are already doing the basics - eating and sleeping properly before a test, and studying. . . .

Guess I should have also asked what subject. Multiple choice questions are usually designed to test a) reading comprehension, b) subject matter knowledge, and c) math skills.

I'm not super-great at reading comprehension questions (i.e., "where did this story take place? Why is Sally leaving home?") They require that you read the passage, pay attention to detail, and also understand the overall big picture. My only suggestion on those is to slow down, try to visualize the setting, make sure you understand the question being asked, and refer back to the passage if necessary.

Math questions, especially word problems, often include extraneous information - things that are not needed to solve the problem. Here you need to identify what the question is that is being asked, how to set up the problem, and how to solve it. For example, if John lives in a 2 story house with his parents and 3 siblings, and a pizza contains 8 slices, how many pizzas will they need to order for everyone to have an equal number of slices? First, filter out the extraneous information - "2 story house", second, figure out how many people live in the house - the number of "parents" is not given, but since it is plural, you can assume it is two. Don't forget to include John! Six people - then solve for how many pizzas it will take to answer the question.

Saving the best for last! General multiple choice hints:
I help many people with this! Pretend I was to give you a True/false test, in Japanese, or some language you do not know. Ten questions. What answers would you give? Why? If you mark every other True/False, you can easily get them all wrong. If you put straight TRUE, or straight FALSE, you will likely get 4-6 correct. Why am I telling you this? Because this is a technique that can help you pick up a few extra points, assuming you have studied, AND the test does NOT penalize you for guessing wrong answers (I think the SAT does that.) When I take a multiple choice test, I walk into the room with a letter in my head. Usually I choose "B", but it can be any letter. For any question that I totally just do not know, and there is no way I can figure it out, I put "B" and move on. Lowers the stress level. If I can narrow it down to two options, but can't choose between them, I pick the one on the left, and move on. This lets me work faster, and with much less stress.

I was helping someone to study for the military entrance exam. There was a subject neither one of us knew, I think it was Electronics. We both took the practice test. He tried really hard. I put straight B's, and beat him.

The other thing, if you sometimes run out of time before the test is done - watch the clock. When you get to the end, put straight B for everything that you have not had time to answer. About 20% of those will be correct answers.

While the purpose of tests is to find out what you know, the game of life contains many such tests. In my opinion, the objective is to win without cheating. These techniques will help you to do that!

Hope this helps you! Feel free to ask any questions.
Kim