Timeline for Is it dishonest to guess on multiple choice exams?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
7 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Feb 23, 2020 at 1:44 | comment | added | vonbrand | You just discovered that writing good multiple choice tests is very hard. I know for a fact that in our national entrance exam in the '80s and '90s (Chile, PAA) only around 1/3 of the questions were really considered; some of the others were questions added to test if they were biased or not (and to be considered later on, perhaps just for fine-tuning); others were new questions being added to the mix for better coverage/variety, but as a first test. | |
| Nov 15, 2017 at 13:29 | comment | added | Robert Columbia | What was the primary cause of the US Civil War? A: Slavery B: Killer Bees C: Robert E. Lee being committed to a mental institution against his will D: Republican ballot stuffing. | |
| May 20, 2014 at 14:01 | comment | added | ChrisLively | @BenVoigt: A number of tech companies would absolutely agree that "reverse engineering" a short list of potential answers is absolutely easier... | |
| May 20, 2014 at 1:44 | comment | added | Ben Voigt | @Chris: Also, working backwards from potential answers (for example, taking derivatives is generally far easier than integration) | |
| May 19, 2014 at 14:25 | comment | added | ChrisLively | This skill is taught in numerous elementary schools in the USA in order to help them with standardized testing. Generally speaking, out of 5 choices, 3 are obviously not an answer if you know anything about the subject material or even English, while the remaining two are usually pretty close. By having this skill the odds of guessing a correct answer moves up to 50%. I'll leave it for others to decide if this is a worthwhile pursuit for the US education system. | |
| May 19, 2014 at 13:28 | comment | added | Raphael | Interesting anecdote regarding language skills beating subject skills (allegedly). Thanks for sharing! | |
| May 19, 2014 at 0:32 | history | answered | paul garrett | CC BY-SA 3.0 |