Lead ins – options, actions, and why the marks lie here

Quiz time:

Can you spot the difference between these two lead-in questions?

1. What pharmacological management options are appropriate?
2. What pharmacological management actions are appropriate?

Missed it? Don’t worry – most will have.

Let’s look at it again:

1. What pharmacological management options are appropriate?
2. What pharmacological management actions are appropriate?

A one word difference. And in the exam, it almost certainly won’t be bolded, so you could very easily miss it.

But does it matter? You can bet your dollar it does.

Why?

Options means just that – options. You might not do them all the same time – so it broadens you range of options available. Think of your answers as a menu – you won’t select all of them, but you might select a couple.

Actions means that your answers must be mutually compatible – i.e., they cannot interact, and that you might do all of them at the same time.

As you can see, one word changes the entire interpretation of the question, and more importantly how well you would do. If you answer an ‘actions’ question as an ‘options’ question, you run a high chance throwing away a multitude of marks.

Talk about that for an inner rule of the game!

Don’t worry – our PassGP Examiners will step you through on how to approach these questions in detail, with plenty of Hints and Tips.

For now – all you need to know is to look out for options vs actions, and you are halfway there.