Darned Standardized Tests

"Iowacookiemom" wrote in message
...
Typically,
the test maker will put in an answer called the "distracter", that looks
vaguely plausible, but isn't close to being correct.

Oooh, that sounds especially mean-spirited when you consider
easily-distracted
kids with ADD.

It exists on lower level tests, too-especially in math. Which is actually
one reason why teachers teach the "show every step" thing-because often this
removes the jumping to the logical, but wrong, answer. And there were
several questions on this year's 3rd grade TCAP that the teachers giving
them couldn't agree on the best answer! Heaven help the poor kids!
-Dawn
Still grateful she has a way to go before SAT time...

In article RIChc.184720$JO3.105615@attbi_s04,
Claire Petersky wrote:

Further, it also helps to know how these tests are put together. Typically,
the test maker will put in an answer called the "distracter", that looks
vaguely plausible, but isn't close to being correct.

If you can identify and eliminate the distracter from your choices on a
multiple choice test, you've improved your odds even further in the guessing
game.

I remember noticing this on tests as a kid. In tests where I had extra
time left, I'd try to figure out why they put in each of the wrong
options they did, such as distraction with a similar sounding word, or
for a math test for example, if you add instead of subtracting, you'd
get (b), if you borrowed wrong you'd get (c), if you were off-by-one on
your subtraction, you'd get (d), etc.... It helped me find some errors
in my own work, and helped increase my confidence in my correct
answers. I've always "tested well" at least in part because I enjoyed
the challenge and thought of it like a game.

Robyn (mommy to Ryan 9/93 and Matthew 6/96 and Evan 3/01)
--
"Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to
work hard at work worth doing." -- Theodore Roosevelt

Kevin Karplus wrote in message ...
In article , Rosalie B. wrote:
...
It is always worth guessing if you have some idea of the answer. If
you can eliminate one of 4 answers, you have a 1/3rd chance of
guessing right (if my math is correct, which it often is not), and
they will only penalize a wrong answer by 1 in 4 and not one in 3.
There is no formula that will taken into account a semi- guess based
on one or two of the answers having been eliminated.

Actually, there are such formulas. It is possible for a test maker to
give each answer to a question a different weight, allowing multiple
correct answers, some right answers better than others, and some wrong
answers more wrong than others. It isn't even very difficult to
design such questions and assign weights, but most test designers find
that not worth the effort, so simpler schemes with +1 for the right
answer and either 0 or -1/(n-1) for the wrong answers are most common.


I took a test once in which I was to answer 50 out of 53 questions. I
had to specify which questions I was not answering because some of the
questions had no correct answer, so no answer was the correct answer.


A test designer who really wanted to penalize even informed guessing
could use a scheme in which there was +1 for right answers and -1 for
wrong answers. In such a scheme, one would be better off leaving a
question blank than guessing, even if 2 answers out of 5 could be
eliminated. For very important questions, where guessing could be a
life-or-death matter and an honest I-don't-know is safer, one might
want to penalize wrong answers even more strongly.

I doubt many elementary school tests are life-or-death matters.

If you are going to teach guessing strategies, is is very important to
know how the test is going to be scored.

I still think that for a child with math anxiety (or even an adult
with same) that it would be worthwhile to tell them that it would be
good to guess, and to teach strategies for guessing. Even if the test
designer goes to the trouble to use that type of scheme you have
indicated.