[beamthegreat]

Which way do you think is the statistically wises choice to guess your way through a multiple choice test??? Do you think choosing the same letters for every question has a better chance of getting it right than just randomly picking a letter?? Or do you think choosing letters chronologically is better? Let me know what you think!
 
Oh and it would be awesome if someone could statistically prove it.

 

[jamesnz]

I once had a test where they made every answer 'c'. So just answer 'c' and you'll be fine! 

 

[Eric_C]

I think your chances go up the most...when you study.

 

[ldtboyl]

Most often, difficult questions don't have "A" for an answer....
says my teacher..

 

[Willakan]

Revision works better than guessing. Even if you guess with statistics on your side, you're still almost certainly going to fail horribly.

 

[Eric_C]

So, assuming this is just an academic exercise rather than knowledge that will actually get applied (because the application is inherently useless, anyway), let me see if I've got my probability worked out right:
 
Probability that you will pass by randomly guessing = (1/n)^a + (1-1/n)^b
Where:
   n = number of answers to choose from, per question
   a = number of questions you must answer to pass
   b = total number of questions - a
 
Is that correct? My math never was that great.

 

[beamthegreat]

Quote:

Revision works better than guessing. Even if you guess with statistics on your side, you're still almost certainly going to fail horribly.

Not really, In a long exam where you have to do more than 60 multiply questions, chances are there will still be question you won't be able to do. Lets say there is 7 of them. If you were able to guess and get 2 of them right based on stats, you might have increase you grade from a B+ to an A. So if you were able to increase your accuracy of randomly guessing the answer to 33% opposed to 25% (1/4) you might be able to increase your score a little. (Assuming that there are 4 choices on the test)

 

[ShooTa]

easy
 
A
C
D
C
A
C
D
C
A
C
D
C
 
 
 

 

[nikp]

Okay, multiple choice questions. I've done this in multiple exams and the chance of guessing it right is ~60% in my own experience. Please remember I'm in Melbourne and I'm doing it the "Melbournian" way. I think like this: If I'm an examiner, would I put my answer @ A? No, that's pretty dumb right? Anyway, that's just a starter.
 
Next, well I found this way after analysing exam questions here in Victoria and I got almost every multiple question right in a music theory exam (90%) as well as a math exam (60% correct guessing). Well, I'll admit. I took a couple of different test papers and tried to guess the whole thing although I know what to do. I figured that if I got stuck, there must be some kind of pattern in the examiner's brain. Look for mutual things!!
 
eg/
 
A: 11425 666 89
B: 12435 667 87
C: 11425 666 87
D: 12535 667 87
 
Guess which one is the correct one? It's C - most mutual "stuff". Of course this method doesn't always work, but it's a great method. I'm not a great explainer but I hope you get what I'm trying to say here. Hope this helps. 

 
But hey, stop guessing, get a pen and start studying more. There's nothing worse than guessing your way through an exam. The things I fail during my high school years is a lack of planning and studying. 

 
 

 

[Head Injury]

With most multiple choice questions there's at least one or two answers that make absolutely no sense even to those who haven't studied. Eliminate those and your chances improve a lot.

 

[beamthegreat]

Quote:

With most multiple choice questions there's at least one or two answers that make absolutely no sense even to those who haven't studied. Eliminate those and your chances improve a lot.

Yea but it doesn't work on language courses. I once forgot to study for my chinese test and theres no way anyone could know which answers are incorrect. 

 

[liamstrain]

Quote:

With most multiple choice questions there's at least one or two answers that make absolutely no sense even to those who haven't studied. Eliminate those and your chances improve a lot.

This. +1000

 

[liamstrain]

Quote:

Yea but it doesn't work on language courses. I once forgot to study for my chinese test and theres no way anyone could know which answers are incorrect. 

There is always a way to eliminate at least one answer. Unless by "forgot to study" you also didn't attend the class, or read the textbook, or do any of the exercises throughout the year and thus had no idea about the language at all.

 

[ShooTa]

what no one ran with my ac/dc bit- im ashamed.

 

[tf1216]

I was told that the longest multiple choice answer is a good guess.