Should students change their answers on multiple choice questions?

Area of Science:

• Physiology
• Biology Education
• Educational Psychology

Background:

• Multiple choice exams are widely used in education.
• Existing advice on answer-changing strategies lacks robust research backing.
• Faculty and student perceptions regarding answer changes are often contradictory.

Purpose of the Study:

• To empirically evaluate the impact of answer changes on student performance in physiology and biology multiple-choice exams.
• To compare student and faculty beliefs about the effects of changing answers on exam scores.
• To investigate individual student consistency in answer-changing behavior and its predictive value across exams.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of previously marked examinations to identify and quantify answer changes.
• Tabulation of the impact of answer changes on student grades.
• Surveys administered to faculty and students to gauge their opinions on answer-changing strategies.
• Statistical analysis, including chi-squared tests, V-tests, and regression analysis, to assess significance and relationships.

Main Results:

• Students changed incorrect answers to correct ones more frequently than vice versa, resulting in an average benefit to their scores.
• A significant majority of students believed answer changing helped their scores, while a plurality of faculty believed it harmed scores.
• While some students consistently changed answers more than others, performance on one exam did not predict benefit from changing answers on a subsequent exam.

Conclusions:

• Empirical evidence supports that students generally benefit from changing answers on multiple-choice exams.
• Faculty and student perceptions about answer changing do not align with empirical findings.
• Students should be encouraged to review and revise their answers before final submission to potentially improve their exam performance.