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Situational Judgement›Drag-and-drop appropriateness

Drag-and-drop appropriateness

Tackle Most/Least Appropriate SJ sets with targeted strategies to judge responses from ideal to harmful.
2 min

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A Most/Least Appropriate question includes a scenario, almost always with a medical or dental student as the decider, and three responses.

Each response is in a box. There are blank grey boxes next to the words ‘Most Appropriate’ and ‘Least Appropriate’.

You must decide which response is most appropriate and which is least appropriate. This question type is the only one in Situational Judgement that has a drag and drop format.

ISOLATE THE ODD-ONE-OUT – THEN FOCUS ON THE OTHER TWO RESPONSES. A medical student on placement, Gibreel, has built an excellent rapport with a long-stay patient, Mrs Milton. One afternoon, Gibreel is beckoned over by Mrs Milton who has relatives visiting her. Mrs Milton tells them Gibreel has been an angel during her stay and that he is by far the most competent doctor she has ever encountered. Choose both the one most appropriate action and the one least appropriate action that Gibreel should take in response to this situation. You will not receive any marks for this question unless you select both the most and least appropriate actions. Questions A Say thank you but that he has only been doing his job B Explain to the patient very slowly that she is confused C Introduce himself to the family as a medical student. The B response is very clearly bad = isolate; it’s our ‘Least’ A is fine but doesn’t address the key issue. That leaves C as our ‘Most’ © Medify
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There are no partial marks for Most/Least Appropriate questions – you need to get both parts correct to be rewarded.

Often one response will quite clearly be most or least appropriate, leaving you with two options in the same category that are more difficult to distinguish between.

Note as well that this is the only Situational Judgement format in which each set is an individual question. This means you must carefully read a new scenario for each Most/Least Appropriate question, then assess the most and least appropriate responses among the three options.

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Use the Medify strategy for Most/Least Appropriate questions:

  • Read the scenario and find the key issue(s).
  • Decide whether each response is generally appropriate or inappropriate.
  • Usually, there is only one appropriate response.
  • You must then decide which of the other two is least appropriate.
  • Less commonly, you will have to decide between two less-than-ideal responses as the most appropriate.
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Walkthrough example

Most/Least Appropriate

Let’s work through an example of a Most/Least Appropriate scenario and its three responses.

The Most/Least Appropriate sets normally appear at the end of the Situational section.

The scenarios may be a little longer than the other kinds of Appropriateness sets, but this isn’t always the case.

DECIDING APPROPRIATENESSNESS Most appropriate A A very appropriate thing to do B Appropriate, but not ideal C Inappropriate, but not awful D A very inappropriate thing to do Least appropriate Use your instincts for regular Appropriateness sets to tackle Most/Least Appropriate questions © Medify

If you’re caught in two minds between two inappropriate responses, for example, try to distinguish which would be a C in a regular set, and which would be a D.

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You may also find two responses that would likely be a D in regular Appropriateness. It can be tough to decide which is worse. Consider whether one of the bad options:

  • Compromises patient safety or dignity
  • Violates patient confidentiality
  • Supports or demonstrates any form of academic misconduct
  • Risks public confidence in the profession
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With two bad responses, ultimately you must decide which is ‘more bad’ – this is quite different to regular Appropriateness, but it will get easier with practice.

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Timed Practice

Most/Least Appropriate

Let’s do some timed practice with the goal of answering a Most/Least Appropriate question in no more than a minute.