USMLE Step 1 Question Types: Bait and Switch Questions

Bait and switch questions begin by presenting material that may lead you to think about content in one direction, but then shift you to another line of thought at the end; a sort of mental sleight of hand. The key question is always given in the last line of the question stem. Everything else before the last line is simply a setup. You cannot tell for certain what information is useful and what information in unnecessary until you get to the end of the stem and encounter the actual question.
Because of this, some students make a habit of reading the last line of the question stem, and then scan the rest of the presented information looking for pertinent material. This strategy may have worked on other tests, but has some pitfalls on the USMLE Step 1. If you have the discipline to read the question line and then return to read the rest of the stem in detail, this is not a bad strategy for this type of question. However, experience suggests that this is not the best strategy for most students.
The best advice is to read the last line of the question first only if you then read through the rest of the question. Read the last line before reading the rest of the question, not in place of reading the rest of the question. Reading the last line first to avoid reading the entire question is a low- yield strategy and results in an increased error rate.