AKT Tips: a Trilogy in Four Parts (Part 2)

Episode Two: Attack of the AKT

Fiction holds a mirror to nature, as Hamlet tells us, and so fiction can help us unravel many a mystery, including the mystery of how to pass the AKT. 

Use these tips gathered from the great novels of history to defeat your enemies and triumph (or at least to achieve fellowship)

• It’s okay to change your mind aka the Pride and Prejudice

“You are joking, Lizzy.  This cannot be!–engaged to Mr. Darcy! No, no, you shall not deceive me.  I know it to be impossible.”

“This is a wretched beginning indeed!  My sole dependence was on you; and I am sure nobody else will believe me, if you do not.  Yet, indeed, I am in earnest.  I speak nothing but the truth.  He still loves me, and we are engaged.”

Jane looked at her doubtingly.  “Oh, Lizzy!  it cannot be.  I know how much you dislike him.”

“You know nothing of the matter.  That is all to be forgot.  Perhaps I did not always love him so well as I do now.  But in such cases as these, a good memory is unpardonable.  This is the last time I shall ever remember it myself.”
 

Here’s how to apply this tip:

1. When reviewing a question you are unsure about, first carefully reread the stem
2. Decide your answer
3. Check the answer list for your answer

The majority of answer changes are from incorrect to correct answers.

• Long and specific answers are often correct (sometimes) aka the Pale King

“To be, in a word, unborable…. It is the key to modern life. If you are immune to boredom, there is literally nothing you cannot accomplish.” — David Wallace (The Pale King, David Foster Wallace)

 Here’s how to apply this tip: Read every word of the stem through. If you skim a long and specific answer you may miss the point of the question. Be “unborable”.

• Absolutes aka the Aristocrat

“Aristocrats don't notice philosophical conundra. They just ignore them. Philosophy includes contemplating the possibility that you might be wrong, sir, and a real aristocrat knows that he is always right. It's not vanity, you understand, it's built-in absolute certainty. They may sometimes be as mad as a hatful of spoons, but they are always definitely and certainly mad.”
― Terry Pratchett, Snuff

Here’s how to apply this tip: Exercise caution if you see words such as always, never, is, and isn’t. Medicine rarely talks in absolutes.