Quizzes

A number of debates surround the use of multiple-choice assessment, including: whether multiple-choice assessment fosters surface or deep approaches to learning (Struyen et al.,2005; Williams & Clark, 2004), the number of response items to include (Rodriguez, 2005), the appropriate positioning of correct item options (Attali & Bar-Hillel, 2003), and the role of student preparation prior to assessment (Wallace & Williams, 2003). These are important issues aimed towards ensuring that these assessments are reliable and valid. Less attention has been given to what should a student do when faced with the dilemma of choosing the correct answer.



Summary of findings:

The extent and benefit of answer switching when completing multiple-choice exams was investigatedin an undergraduate course (n = 1,152) and a postgraduate course (n = 1,624). Answerswitching was identified in 1.7% and 2.4% of cases, respectively. In both samples, more than halfthe participants changed at least one answer and, of these, approximately 50% increased their testscore and 25% decreased their test score. Significant gender differences were not found, but maleswere less likely to switch. Multivariate analysis indicated no significant differences in answer switching behaviour between Australian and international students. Univariate tests, however, suggested that international students made more right to wrong (p <.05) and wrong to wrong (p <.02) switches. The results also suggested that better students were more likely to switch from a wrong to a right answer, and to make significantly fewer right to wrong (p < .001) switches.