8.4 The Four Causes of Wrong Answers & Scoring the Official Practice Test
Key Takeaways
- The publisher identifies four causes of incorrect responses: marking and guessing errors, misreading the question or answer, not knowing key words, and answers that merely look good.
- Watch for absolute words such as only, never, always, all and whenever, which usually signal an option that overstates what the passage said.
- Be suspicious of options containing an exact phrase lifted from the question, and do not be swayed by the length of an option or by technical-sounding terminology.
- The official practice test contains 65 cognitive items and its answer sheet breaks results down by ability, so you can diagnose exactly which of the twelve to study.
- A section score of 60% or lower is described as a deficiency likely to produce poor examination performance and should drive your study plan.
8.4 The Four Causes of Wrong Answers & Scoring the Official Practice Test
Two things separate a candidate who improves from one who merely practises: knowing why an answer was wrong, and knowing which ability to work on next. The official study guide supplies a framework for each.
1. The Four Causes of Incorrect Responses
Cause 1 — Marking and guessing errors
Three sub-cases, each with a fix:
| Reason | Fix |
|---|---|
| Skipped an item and never came back | Mark skipped items and check your marks before the section ends |
| Lost track of time and could not fill in unanswered items | Check the clock often; leave five minutes at the end |
| Forced into rushed guesses because you over-invested in hard items | Skip earlier and narrow options by elimination |
The guide also notes a mechanical point that carries over to the computer-based format: make sure the item you are answering is the item you think you are answering. On a screen, the analogue of a misaligned answer sheet is answering the previous item's question after navigating — verify the item number when you jump between flagged questions.
Cause 2 — Misreading a question or answer
Usually caused by overlooking a key word or phrase. The fix is to identify the key words in the stem, then check the details of each option against them one by one, "always keeping in mind that you are looking for the best possible answer with the most accurate details."
Key words worth flagging every time: many, most, least, less, more, good, best, advantage, disadvantage, first, last, never, always, any, not, except, false, true.
The word except deserves special attention, because it inverts the task: three options will be correct statements and you are looking for the one that is not.
Cause 3 — Not knowing the meaning of key words
This is a vocabulary problem showing up inside another item type. The fix offered is "reading for meaning": when you meet an unfamiliar word, reread the sentence to establish its general sense, and let the surrounding phrases clarify the word. It is also the argument for taking section 2.2 seriously — vocabulary limits your ceiling on reading, writing and deductive items, not just on the five vocabulary items.
Cause 4 — Answers that "look" good
Two distinct traps:
- The lifted phrase. "An incorrect answer may contain an exact phrase from the original question." Familiar wording feels correct. Verify the whole statement rather than recognising a fragment.
- The overstatement. "An incorrect answer may overstate information that was presented in the question. For example, if the question says, 'Some incidents…', an incorrect answer may say, 'All incidents…'" The guidance is to stick strictly to the facts as described and to watch for only, never, always, whenever, all.
2. Multiple-Choice Tactics
The guide lists quick tactics worth internalising:
- Read the entire question carefully and try to answer it before looking at the choices. Forming your own answer first prevents the options from reframing the question.
- Look for key words in the stem from the list above.
- Read all options before concluding one must be best. The best answer is frequently not the first plausible one.
- Mark only one answer per item. More than one is scored incorrect.
- Use elimination, then pick the option that most exactly answers the question.
- Do not be influenced by the length of the answer choices. "The longest answer is not necessarily correct."
- Do not select an option just because it uses technical language. Technical terminology may be included specifically "to see whether you know the difference between what 'looks right' and what 'is right.'"
- Do not make unwarranted assumptions. Determine the best answer using only the information supplied.
Point 8 is the through-line of the whole examination. It is the same instruction the deductive reasoning section gives about not importing outside knowledge, the same one the reading section gives about not selecting implied-but-unstated conclusions, and the same one the inductive section gives about not relying on witnesses' assumptions.
3. Scoring the Official 65-Item Practice Test
The free study guide published by the State Police contains a 65-item cognitive practice test — the same number of cognitive items as the real examination — with an answer key and a scoring guide. Working it is the highest-value single action in your preparation, and scoring it properly is what converts practice into a study plan.
Take it under exam conditions. The guide recommends recreating test-day conditions as closely as possible: one sitting, timed, no interruptions, and no looking back at the memorization photographs once the study period ends.
The scoring table maps items to abilities:
| Items | Ability | Out of |
|---|---|---|
| 1–10 | Memorization | 10 |
| 11–13, 16–17 | Reading | 5 |
| 14–15, 18, 29–30 | Vocabulary | 5 |
| 19–23 | Writing | 5 |
| 24–28 | Grammar | 5 |
| 31–35 | Deductive Reasoning | 5 |
| 36–40 | Ordering of Information | 5 |
| 41–45 | Inductive Reasoning | 5 |
| 46–50 | Pattern Recognition | 5 |
| 51–55 | Visualization | 5 |
| 56–60 | Spatial Orientation | 5 |
| 61–65 | Flexibility of Closure | 5 |
Note that vocabulary items are not contiguous — they appear both attached to the reading passages (items 14–15 and 18) and as stand-alone synonym items (29–30). That mirrors the two formats described in section 2.2.
Converting to percentages is straightforward: on the five-item sections, each correct answer is 20 percentage points; on the ten-item memorization section, each is 10.
4. Reading Your Diagnostic
The guide gives two interpretation thresholds, and they should drive your study plan directly.
Per section:
- 70%–100% — ability in this area is high. It is still worth practising anything below 100%.
- 60% or lower — "this represents a deficiency that should be addressed with continued study and practice. An ability level at or below the 60% level will likely result in poor performance on the examination."
Overall (out of 65):
| Overall score | Category | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 80%–100% | Strong | Likely to perform well; keep practising and shore up weaker dimensions |
| 61%–79% | Approaching readiness | Close, but skills need strengthening; review the sections you scored poorly in |
| 0%–60% | Needs improvement | More practice required across the board |
Roughly, 52 of 65 correct is the bottom of the Strong band and 40 of 65 the bottom of Approaching Readiness.
Use the per-section numbers, not the overall number, to plan. An overall 75% built from a 40% in vocabulary and a 100% in reading calls for a completely different study week than a flat 75% across the board. The section breakdown exists to tell you where the points are.
5. Turning the Diagnostic Into a Plan
- Score by section and rank the twelve abilities from weakest to strongest.
- Start with any section at or below 60%. These are the publisher's flagged deficiencies.
- Weight memorization heavily. It is ten items rather than five, so a 60% there costs four raw points where a 60% elsewhere costs two — and it is the ability that responds fastest to structured practice (Chapter 7).
- Do not neglect vocabulary because it feels unfixable. Six weeks of daily reading with a word list moves it, and it is the ability most candidates skip entirely.
- Re-test on the sections you worked, not on the whole test. Repeating the full practice test soon after taking it measures your memory of the answers rather than your ability.
The guide's closing observation is the right note to end on: "The cognitive section of the test is your best opportunity to improve your test score — every question you get correct could substantially improve your ranking." On a ranked eligibility list, a handful of items is not a rounding error. It is the difference between being reached and being passed over.
A passage states that "over 40% of the incidents occurred in office buildings." One answer option reads: "All of the incidents occurred in office buildings." Which of the four named causes of incorrect responses does this option exploit?
A candidate scores the official 65-item practice test and records: Memorization 5/10, Vocabulary 1/5, Reading 4/5, Grammar 4/5, and 4/5 on each remaining section. How should she plan her study?
On a deductive reasoning item a candidate is drawn to an option because it contains a phrase lifted word for word from the policy passage and uses precise technical terminology. What do the publisher's multiple-choice tactics say about this reasoning?
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