The following are essential standardized testing skills:
Pace yourself. The ASCP MLS exam consists of 100 questions in 2 hours and 30 minutes. Set aside a block of 30 minutes at the end of the exam for review.** That leaves you with 2 hours (120 minutes) to complete 100 questions.** You must be at question #25 by 30 minutes. You mustbe at question #50 by 60 minutes - and so on. Despite knowing this, I still spent too much time on a few questions. However, thanks to my 30 minute buffer, I didn’t need to rush at the end.
There is no penalty for picking a wrong answer, so make sure you pick something. According to Harr, “B” is the most common answer.
Based on my own experience (and Harr and Kaplan and Princeton), the longest, most detailed answer is often correct. If i’m unsure, I choose the most detailed answer.
An answer choice containing an absolute (never, always) is too extreme. Remember - ** NOBODY likes an extremist!**
The following is the ASCPs breakdown of questions by subject matter. As you can see, Blood Bank, Chemistry, Hematology and Microbiology are the most important subjects. Make certain to study these before you move on to more obscure subjects. Parasitology and Mycology are included in the ~20 Micro questions but how many of them might you see? The ASCP Micro specialist exam consists of only 15% parasit or mycology questions! For the comprehensive exam that you’re taking, that works out to less than 3 of each! Most likely, you’ll see less than 2 of each!
