Second Thoughts in Multiple Choice Tests in Science Students have frequently asked teachers Total Changes whether i t is advantageous to change initial reN % Type Of Response Change sponses in multiple choice tests provided time permits. Much research (1-11) has been carried out hut Incorrect lo correct 1058 48.7 with conflicting results. In order to investigate the Correct to incorrect 417 19.2 effect of allowing pupils tochange their first choice Incorrect 10 incorrect 696 32.1 in multiple choice science examinations a series of Told 2171 100.0 tests was given ta twelve and thirteen year old pupils in a mixed ahilitv secondarv school over a ~ e r i o dof two years. The sample size was 1614. The results are shown in the table.
Discussion Since the aim of changing a response in a test is to improve performance, those pupils who chose to change responses in these tests did in fact improve their scores more frequently than they reduced their scares. Of a total of 2171 response changes - almost half of these resulted in a correct final resoonse: of those chanres which omduced an incorrect final response it was more likely that the first response too was incorrect. Since a change from an incorrect response t o another incorrect response does not alter test performance, it can he said that the chances were about 5:2 that a change of response would produce an increase rather than a decrease in test score.
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T h e University of ~ l a s g o w Glasgow, Gl28QQ United Kingdom
326 1 Journal of Chemical Education
S. Friel
A. H. Johnstone
