3 ms·
> When I was in school and taking multiple choice exams, the advice was always to “stick with your first instinct” rather than to change to a different answer.
by gnicholas 3y ago
> When I was in school and taking multiple choice exams, the advice was always to “stick with your first instinct” rather than to change to a different answer. I am now convinced that this advice does not give you a better chance at getting the correct answer — but it does make people feel better than if they get it wrong and find out their original choice was correct.
This would make sense if you had zero knowledge about which answer was right - like if the problem were in a foreign language you didn’t speak. But if you have some knowledge of the subject, it doesn’t make sense to say that your first guess isn’t more likely to be correct. There are some tests that have problems meant to trap people who aren’t thinking deeply enough, but many tests aren’t like this (or maybe these distractors aren’t tricky enough to fool you). Gut instinct on multiple choice tests ain’t nothing.
- smeej 3y agoCame here for this subpoint. We know a lot more than we know we know. I had a system, back when multiple choice tests were a significant part of my life. Next to each question, I would write a 1, 2, or 3, so I knew which ones to come back to if I had time at the end. 1 meant I was confident I knew the answer. 2 meant I could eliminate at least one answer, but was guessing among the remaining ones, and 3 meant I didn't know, and had just circled the first thing that came to mind. I especially appreciated tests where I got my own question sheet back, not just my answer sheet with a grade (like a Scantron) because I could verify that my system worked!
- gnicholas 3y agoHa, I did this when I was prepping for the LSAT. It was useful to see if I was missing questions I knew I didn’t know well, or if I was missing questions that I thought I had nailed.
- bmacho 3y agoI don't like this at all. First, you can improve your performance, you should regret not studying enough, or not concentrating enough during the test. If you want to regret something, regret your decisions. If you can't regret your decisions because there is nothing to regret, you probably should feel no regret instead, than doing cheap tricks. Of course if you are unable to not feel any regret, then “stick with your first instinct” can be a good cheap trick.