jbm_lecture on mcqs for the online bar review_new.pdf

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1 LECTURE ON MCQs for the ONLINE BAR REVIEW - Prof. Jaime Bilan Montealegre - Let me first wish you “Good Luck” in your quest to become lawyers. Some of you may have dreams of becoming one of the best lawyers in town, but to be one you have to first hurdle the 2011 Philippine Bar examinations. My task is to discuss what a Multiple Choice Type of Examination is or what is commonly called as MCQs. As you very well know, the Supreme Court approved three major changes in the 2011 Philippine Bar Examinations. In Bar Matter 2265, which deals with the Reforms in the 2011 Bar Examinations, these major changes are the following: ChanRobles Internet Bar Review : ChanRobles Professional Review, Inc. www.chanroblesbar.com : www.chanroblesbar.com.ph ChanRobles rs. So s. S one of ne of have ave xamin xamin Bar sh you sh yo ChanRobles t discu discu s or w s or w Bar in t in he he ChanRobles e C called alled h e Su e Su in t in t Bar Choi Choi ChanRobles ov pine ine eals w eals w ons, ons, Bar ved ved

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Page 1: jbm_LECTURE ON MCQs for the ONLINE BAR REVIEW_new.pdf

1�

LECTURE ON MCQs for the ONLINE BAR REVIEW

- Prof. Jaime Bilan Montealegre -

Let me first wish you “Good Luck” in your quest to

become lawyers. Some of you may have dreams of

becoming one of the best lawyers in town, but to be one

you have to first hurdle the 2011 Philippine Bar

examinations.

My task is to discuss what a Multiple Choice Type of

Examination is or what is commonly called as MCQs.

As you very well know, the Supreme Court approved

three major changes in the 2011 Philippine Bar

Examinations. In Bar Matter 2265, which deals with the

Reforms in the 2011 Bar Examinations, these major

changes are the following:

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Page 2: jbm_LECTURE ON MCQs for the ONLINE BAR REVIEW_new.pdf

2�

First, the Supreme Court has Redefined the

Coverage of the Bar Examinations. As it is now,

there is a syllabus for each subject in the Bar

Examinations, meaning that the coverage of the Bar

Examinations is arranged by topics and sub-topics,

rather than by just stating the covered laws, or in

other words the coverage of the bar exams is

specifically outlined indicating the subject areas

covered, unlike before where the Supreme Court

would simply state the covered laws and a cut-off

date of decisions rendered.

Second, the Supreme Court mandated the use

of MCQs in the 2011 Bar Examinations. As per Bar

Matter 2265, the MCQs shall specifically measure the

following cognitive skills:

(a) Knowledge and recall – meaning your

knowledge of and ability to recall the laws,

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Page 3: jbm_LECTURE ON MCQs for the ONLINE BAR REVIEW_new.pdf

3�

doctrines, and principles that you will need as a

new lawyer;

(b) Understanding – referring to your

understanding of the meaning and significance

of those same laws, doctrines, and principles as

they apply to specific situations; and

(c) Analysis and solution – meaning your

ability to analyze legal problems, apply the

correct law or principle to such problems, and

provide solutions to them.

In the briefing papers issued by the Supreme

Court, for each bar subject, 20% of the MCQs are for

knowledge and recall; 40% for understanding and

another 40% for Analysis and Solution.

The third major change is the use of essay-type

questions to measure your lawyering skills.

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Page 4: jbm_LECTURE ON MCQs for the ONLINE BAR REVIEW_new.pdf

4�

Thus, in the 2011 Bar Examinations, the questions

shall be of two kinds:

First, Multiple Choice Questions that measure

your knowledge and understanding of laws and their

applications; and

Second, Essay-Type questions that will

measure your lawyering skills.

I’m sure you know by now that the first three

Sundays of the Bar Examinations are devoted to

MCQs and the last Sunday for Essay-Type questions.

I will limit my discussion on MCQs because this year

will be the first time that this type of question will be used

in the Bar examinations. I believe that making yourselves

very familiar with MCQs, their nature, how they are

constructed and how they are best answered, will make

you feel more comfortable and confident when you take

the Bar Examinations.

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Page 5: jbm_LECTURE ON MCQs for the ONLINE BAR REVIEW_new.pdf

5�

Now, what is an MCQ?

Basically, an MCQ is one where the question itself

contains the standard by means of which the correct or

the best answer is to be selected. It is composed of two

(2) parts: (a) the STEM; and (b) the OPTIONS.

Let me illustrate the parts of an MCQ by this

example:

(1) The Supreme Court has original and

exclusive jurisdiction against which of the

following Commissions in petitions for issuance

of writs of certiorari, prohibition and

mandamus?

A. Commission on Elections

B. Civil Service Commission

C. National Labor Relations Commission

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Page 6: jbm_LECTURE ON MCQs for the ONLINE BAR REVIEW_new.pdf

6�

D. Securities and Exchange Commission

That portion which reads:

1. The Supreme Court has original and

exclusive jurisdiction against which of the

following Commissions in petitions for issuance

of writs of certiorari, prohibition and

mandamus?

is the stem.

The enumeration from where the correct or the best

answer is selected is called the options. In this example,

these are:

A. Commission on Elections

B. Civil Service Commission

C. National Labor Relations Commission

D. Securities and Exchange Commission

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Page 7: jbm_LECTURE ON MCQs for the ONLINE BAR REVIEW_new.pdf

7�

One of the options should be the correct or the best

answer and this is called the key answer. I’m sure you

know that key answer is (A) the Commission on Elections.

The wrong options are called the distracters.

You will notice that in this example that I have given

you, the stem of the MCQ presents a problem in an

interrogative or question form and you, as the examinee,

are to choose the best or the correct answer to the

question from the options given. It does not mean,

however, that the stem of an MCQ should always be

presented in the interrogative form. The stem can also be

presented in an incomplete statement.

To illustrate, the example that I just gave you can be

presented in this manner:

(2) The Supreme Court, in petitions for

issuance of writs of certiorari, prohibition and

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Page 8: jbm_LECTURE ON MCQs for the ONLINE BAR REVIEW_new.pdf

8�

mandamus, has original and exclusive

jurisdiction against the _____________.

A.Commission on Elections

B.Civil Service Commission

C. National Labor Relations Commission

D.Securities and Exchange Commission

In this illustration, the stem presents a problem as

an incomplete statement and you have to choose the

option that will correctly or best complete the statement.

You will also notice that in the two (2) examples I

have given you, both have four (4) options. You might

ask: Is there a rule as to the number of options that an

MCQ should have?

Although majority of the standardized tests use four

(4) or five (5) options, there is no rule which dictates as

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Page 9: jbm_LECTURE ON MCQs for the ONLINE BAR REVIEW_new.pdf

9�

to the number of options that an MCQ should have. But

one thing is sure, the more options an MCQ has, the more

difficult it becomes for the obvious reason that the

probability of choosing the best or the correct answer

becomes smaller as the number of options increases.

In the 2011 Bar Examinations, I understand that the

Supreme Court has limited the number of options to four

(4). Thus, even if you don’t know the answer to a

particular item, for as long as you answer that item, you

still have a twenty-five percent (25%) chance of getting

the right answer. Thus, as a reminder, never leave an

item unanswered. The score you will get when you simply

guessed the correct answer and when you really know the

correct answer will be the same. The important thing is

you get the correct answer!

Based on the foregoing discussion, you will note that

the essential feature that differentiates MCQs from the

essay type questions resides in the form of the response.

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Page 10: jbm_LECTURE ON MCQs for the ONLINE BAR REVIEW_new.pdf

10�

In MCQs, you indicate your answer by choosing (normally

by checking or shading) the one of the several

alternatives that you believe to be the best or the correct

answer. The response to an essay type question, on the

other hand, is written in whatever manner you may deem

appropriate. Thus you are free to choose the particular

words with which to clothe your ideas and to organize

them in your own way. In other words, the answer of an

examinee in a Multiple Choice Type of examination is

either correct or wrong. This may not be the case in

Essay Type Examinations because the examiner may give

some points to your answer although your answer may

not exactly be considered the correct answer.

Let me now discuss the steps in the construction of

Multiple Choice type of examinations.

The construction of Multiple Choice type of

examinations normally starts with the preparation of what

is called the Table of Specifications.

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Page 11: jbm_LECTURE ON MCQs for the ONLINE BAR REVIEW_new.pdf

11�

This Table of Specifications is a two-way grid which

contains the subject areas covered, and the cognitive

skills to be measured, by the examination. It indicates

what percentage of the questions measure what kind of

cognitive skills and from which subject areas covered by

the examination.

As I have earlier mentioned, the Supreme Court has

prepared a syllabus for each of the bar examination

subject. In the Table of Specifications, the syllabus itself

will be the subject areas covered in that subject. The

cognitive skills to be measured are those which the

Supreme Court has specifically enumerated, that is:

1. Knowledge and Recall;

2. Understanding ; and

3. Analysis and Solution.

For example, the Table of Specifications for Remedial

Law/ would look like this:

(See Table of Specifications for Remedial Law)

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Page 12: jbm_LECTURE ON MCQs for the ONLINE BAR REVIEW_new.pdf

12�

You may ask: What use will the Table of

Specifications have considering that you will not be

involved in the preparation of the Bar Examinations?

Well, it would be of great help if you have this Table

of Specifications so that you are sure that all the subject

areas included in the bar examinations were covered by

your review. Moreover, you will have a better view of

which subject areas would be a good source of an MCQ

measuring a particular cognitive skill.

To give you a particular example, under the subject

area of General Principles, it would be logical to expect a

question here measuring your cognitive skill in knowledge

and recall or understanding rather than on a question

measuring analysis and solution.

Are there rules in the construction of MCQs?

Just like any type of examination question, there are

basic rules in the construction of MCQs in order that the

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Page 13: jbm_LECTURE ON MCQs for the ONLINE BAR REVIEW_new.pdf

13�

Multiple Choice Type of Examination can be considered

valid and reliable. A little knowledge of these basic rules

will probably guide you better in answering MCQs,

especially in situations where you will simply guess the

correct answer, because you really have no idea as to

what the correct or best answer is.

The first rule in constructing MCQs is that the stem

of the item should be meaningful by itself and should

present a definite problem.

Let us look again /at one of our illustrative items:

(3) The Supreme Court, in petitions for

issuance of writs of certiorari, prohibition and

mandamus, has original and exclusive

jurisdiction against the _____________.

A.Commission on Elections

B.Civil Service Commission

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Page 14: jbm_LECTURE ON MCQs for the ONLINE BAR REVIEW_new.pdf

14�

C. National Labor Relations Commission

D.Securities and Exchange Commission

In this illustrative item, is the stem meaningful by

itself such that it presents a definite problem?

Now, compare that with the following illustrative

item:

(4) The Supreme Court has

____________.

A. original and exclusive jurisdiction

against the Commission on Elections

in petitions for issuance of writs of

certiorari, prohibition and mandamus;

B. original and concurrent jurisdiction

with the Court of Appeals against the

Civil Service Commission in petitions

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Page 15: jbm_LECTURE ON MCQs for the ONLINE BAR REVIEW_new.pdf

15�

for issuance of writs of certiorari,

prohibition and mandamus;

C. original and concurrent jurisdiction

with the Court of Appeals and the

Regional Trial Courts against the

National Labor Relations Commission

in petitions for issuance of writs of

certiorari, prohibition and mandamus;

D. original and concurrent jurisdiction

with the Regional Trial Courts against

the Securities and Exchange

Commission in petitions for issuance

of writs of certiorari, prohibition and

mandamus.

In this illustrative item, can we say that the stem is

meaningful by itself such that it presents a definite

problem?

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Page 16: jbm_LECTURE ON MCQs for the ONLINE BAR REVIEW_new.pdf

16�

It is of course obvious that in our first illustration,

the stem is meaningful by itself such that it presents a

definite problem. This is because you can complete the

sentence with the answer that the examiner wants from

you as the examinee.

We cannot say the same with regard to the second

illustrative item. Here, the item is constructed in such a

way that the stem is not meaningful by itself or does not

present a definite problem because any set of options

may be placed therein to end the stem. Clearly, you, as

the examinee, have to read the options before you can

determine the kind of answer that the examiner really

wants from you.

Now, what is the significance of this rule to you as

the examinee?

It simply means that after reading the stem, you

should already have an idea of the answer that you will

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Page 17: jbm_LECTURE ON MCQs for the ONLINE BAR REVIEW_new.pdf

17�

look for from among the given options. This will prevent

you from being confused by the distracters or prevent you

from answering the question by just guessing the correct

or best answer.

It cannot be avoided, however, that there are

instances when you do not really have an idea of what the

correct answer is after reading the stem. In this

situation, there is no other choice but to go through the

process of eliminating the wrong answers, rather than

choosing the correct answer. The problem with the

process of elimination is that you may not have the luxury

of time to do this more so that you will be answering 100

MCQs in a matter of four (4) hours. In some instances,

you may even have to answer 200 MCQs in four (4) hours

because the Supreme Court has scheduled 2 bar subjects

in the morning of the first Sunday of the bar

examinations, i.e., Political and International Law, and

Labor and Social Legislation. In fact, you will also have to

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Page 18: jbm_LECTURE ON MCQs for the ONLINE BAR REVIEW_new.pdf

18�

answer 200 MCQs in four (4) hours in the morning of the

third Sunday of the bar examinations because both

Remedial Law, and Legal Ethics and Forms are scheduled

on that day.

The second rule requires that the stem should be

stated in the negative form only when significant learning

outcomes require it. The following is an example of an

MCQ where the stem is stated in the negative form:

(5) The Supreme Court, in petitions for

issuance of writs of certiorari, prohibition and

mandamus, does not have original and

exclusive jurisdiction against the

_____________.

A. Commission on Elections

B. Commission on Audit

C. Court of Appeals

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Page 19: jbm_LECTURE ON MCQs for the ONLINE BAR REVIEW_new.pdf

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D. Securities and Exchange Commission

In a way, this rule is interconnected with the first

rule. As I have just discussed, after reading the stem, you

should already have an idea of the answer from among

the given options. This will not be possible if the stem is

stated in the negative form because there will be limitless

options which can be the correct answer.

Let us look again at our example of an MCQ where

the stem is stated in the negative form:

(6) The Supreme Court, in petitions for

issuance of writs of certiorari, prohibition and

mandamus, does not have original and

exclusive jurisdiction against the

_____________.

A. Commission on Elections

B. Commission on Audit

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Page 20: jbm_LECTURE ON MCQs for the ONLINE BAR REVIEW_new.pdf

20�

C. Court of Appeals

D. Securities and Exchange Commission

The correct answer is, of course, letter (D) because in

options (A), (B) and (C) we all know that the Supreme

Court, in petitions for issuance of writs of certiorari,

prohibition and mandamus, does have original and

exclusive jurisdiction over them. Provided we do not

change options (A), (B) and (C), whatever option is

placed in letter (D), that will still be the correct answer.

There is likewise the possibility that you may have

simply failed to notice the negative word “NOT” in the

stem, thus you failed to answer the question correctly not

because you do not know the correct answer, but because

you did not read the question or the stem properly. When

this happens, the very purpose of the examination is thus

not achieved. In situations, therefore, when the stem is

stated in the negative form, the examiner should have

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Page 21: jbm_LECTURE ON MCQs for the ONLINE BAR REVIEW_new.pdf

21�

capitalized, the negative word “Not” and it should have

been in bold letters. You, as the examinee, must take

extra care to read the question properly. Do not be

overconfident that you really understood the question.

The third basic rule mandates that the stem should

be free of irrelevant materials. This is best illustrated by

the following item:

(7) The jurisdiction of the Supreme Court

could be original, exclusive, concurrent and

appellate. In petitions for issuance of writs of

certiorari, prohibition, and mandamus, the

Supreme Court has original and exclusive

jurisdiction against which of the following

Commissions?

A. Commission on Election

B. Civil Service Commission

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Page 22: jbm_LECTURE ON MCQs for the ONLINE BAR REVIEW_new.pdf

22�

C. National Labor Relations Commission

D. Securities and Exchange Commission

In this illustration, the first sentence of the stem

which says that “The jurisdiction of the Supreme Court

could be original, exclusive, concurrent and appellate” is

practically irrelevant because the rest of the stem already

presents a definite problem. What happens when there

are a lot of irrelevant materials in the stem is that you

would be wasting a lot of time reading these irrelevant

materials and thus, there is a possibility that you may not

be able to finish the examination. Moreover, as the

examinee, you should not be distracted by these

irrelevant materials. Your focus should be on that part of

the stem which presents the problem. Stated otherwise,

the rule simply says that examination time is not the

proper time to give a lecture.

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Fourth, all of the options should be grammatically

consistent with the stem of the item.

To Illustrate:

(8) A necessary party to a case is also

referred to/ as a ______________ party.

A. indispensable

B. compulsory

C. proper

D. real

You will notice that in this example, option (A) is not

grammatically consistent with the stem. In all instances,

where the option is not grammatically consistent with the

stem, that option is not the correct answer. Because of

this rule, you of course know now what to do in situations

where the option is not grammatically consistent with the

stem. You should just eliminate that as the possible

correct answer.

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Page 24: jbm_LECTURE ON MCQs for the ONLINE BAR REVIEW_new.pdf

24�

Fifth, verbal associations between the stem and the

correct answer should be avoided. This is best illustrated

in the following example:

(9) The doctrine which dictates that the

judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction

may not be opened, modified or vacated by any

court of concurrent jurisdiction is known as the

____________.

A. Doctrine of Judicial Stability

B. Principle of Judicial Hierarchy

C. Rule on Equity Jurisdiction

D. Doctrine of Primary Jurisdiction

In this particular example, the use of the word

‘doctrine’ in the stem will already give you an idea which

option is the possible answer. If after reading the stem

you still do not know the correct answer, you definitely

should not consider options (B) and (C).

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Page 25: jbm_LECTURE ON MCQs for the ONLINE BAR REVIEW_new.pdf

25�

Sixth, an item should contain only one correct or

clearly the best answer. Your job is to look for the answer

which the examiner tried so hard to hide behind the

attractive or plausible distracters.

The difficulty level of an MCQ would depend on how

well the distracters work. If the distracters are not

working, such that you will be able to arrive at the correct

answer even if you do not know it, then that is an easy

MCQ. I think the examiner will have a difficult time

looking for distracters which are plausible.

Examiners, however, will capitalize on the following

to make the distracters plausible to really test your

knowledge, recall, understanding, and analysis of the law:

(a) Use the students’ most common errors.

(b) Use important-sounding words (significant,

accurate) that are relevant to the stem.

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Page 26: jbm_LECTURE ON MCQs for the ONLINE BAR REVIEW_new.pdf

26�

(c) Use words that have verbal associations

with the stem (politician, political)

(d) Use textbook language or other

phraseology that has the appearance of

truth.

(e) Use incorrect answers that are likely to

result from student misunderstanding or

carelessness

(f) Use distracters that are parallel in form

and grammatically consistent with the

stem.

(g) Make the distracters similar to the correct

answer in length, vocabulary, sentence

structure, and complexity of thought.

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Page 27: jbm_LECTURE ON MCQs for the ONLINE BAR REVIEW_new.pdf

27�

Ninth, the correct answer is sometimes given away

by the relative length of the distracter, and this may

provide a clue to the correct answer. For instance, the

wrong options are relatively longer than the correct

answer because the examiner would add more words to

make them stand out as plausible distracters. On the

other hand, the correct answer is usually longer than the

other options because the examiner would tend to add

more words to it in an effort to make it the best answer.

Tenth, the correct answer should appear in each of

the alternative position in an approximately equal number

of times but in a random order. In other words, the

examiner will make sure that the correct answers are not

all in (A) or (B) or so on. The examiner will make sure

that there is no pattern in the placement of the correct

answers. Since this is the case, you should take a second

look at your answers to see if all of them happens to be

all in (A) or (B) and so on.

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Page 28: jbm_LECTURE ON MCQs for the ONLINE BAR REVIEW_new.pdf

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I hope this lecture will help you deal with MCQ’s in

the bar examinations. There is no reason for you to be

afraid of MCQ’s as long as you have reviewed thoroughly

for the bar examinations. This lecture will be of no use to

you if you have prepared well.

Good luck, and welcome to the profession!

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