Reports on an evaluation of answer changing on multiple choice tests. States that any change a student is inclined to make, no matter how low the confidence, was found to lead to a significant gain. Concludes that students who change answers are likely to benefit despite the widely held belief that "first impressions are best." (GEA)

This review of the literature examines the effectiveness of instructing students in various test-taking strategies, particularly in reference to multiple choice questions. Among findings reported are that while test-wiseness strategies may be taught, these strategies have limited generalizability across exams and learners who proactively process…

The assumption that examinees either know the answer to a test item or else guess at random is usually totally implausible. A different assumption is outlined, under which formula scoring is found to be clearly superior to number right scoring. (Author)

The purpose of this paper is to acquaint the reader with the topic of test-wiseness. The first section of this paper presents a series of multiple-choice items. The reader is asked to respond to them and is encouraged to read carefully the remainder of this paper for techniques which could improve test-taking performance. The next section defines…

This study was designed to answer two questions: (1) Can cognitive strategies to increase testwiseness be taught? and (2) Can such strategies be generalized? Strategies presented were: length of option, middle range, similarity or oppositeness, and deduction. The answer to the first question was affirmative, and the second a qualified…

Both groups show evidence of a response style biased toward the extreme right of multiple choice arrays which was, however, more reliable among the Bedouins. (Author/AM)

This article is mainly concerned with a study of the relation between the content of a multiple choice test and its composition, from the point of view of those features in tests which enable the testee to derive the correct answer by studying the composition of the test itself. (Author/POP)

The types and frequency of markings students made on multiple choice tests were studied as an indication of students' metacognitive test-taking strategies. Also studied was whether instruction in test-taking strategies affected students' fluency and flexibility of strategy use as demonstrated through the marks they made on tests. Participants were…

A question is raised as to how much emphasis should be placed on the use of technical terminology in lectures, reading assignments, and tests, particularly in introductory college courses, if all that is facilitated pertains to factual recall. (JD)

The present investigation was intended to provide information on the type of strategies employed by learning disabled (LD) students on standardized, group-administered achievement test items. Of particular interest was level of strategy effectiveness and possible differences in strategy use between LD and non-disabled students. Students attending…

Gibb (1964) defined test-wiseness (TW) as the ability to respond advantageously to item clues in a multiple-choice setting and therefore to obtain credit without knowledge of the subject matter being tested. This study investigated TW in a sample of 6th grade pupils. A test instrument was developed utilizing fictitious material similar to the…

According to conventional wisdom, a test taker should not change his/her first response to a multiple-choice, although empirical evidence has consistently supported such changes. Quizzes for masters level students in educational measurement and evaluation showed increments due to answer changing. Low anxious students tended to make more changes…

The reading comprehension items for the Nelson Reading Skills Test, a revision of a widely used standardized reading test, were administered to several hundred fourth- and sixth-grade students in order to determine whether the student's ability to answer correctly actually depended on his comprehension of the accompanying passage. All the…

Relationships between multiple-choice test answer changing and testwiseness skills, and between these two variables and examination performance were studied with 150 college business students. Answer-changing behavior was related to multiple-choice test performance but not to testwiseness or performance on the nonmultiple choice portion.…