Staying with Initial Answers on Objective Tests: Is it a Myth?

Since 1928, at least 33 studies have been published concerning a number of issuessurrounding answer-changing behavior on objective tests. Although results in these studies have sometimes been at variance, the one consistent finding is that there is nothing inherently wrong with changing initial answers on objective tests. In fact, the evidence uniformly indicates that: (a) the majority of answer changes are from incorrect to correct and (b) most students who change their answers improve their test scores. None of the 33 studies contradicts either of those conclusions. Most of the research in this area has been aimed at testing the accuracy of "first impressions" in test-taking. This bit of academic folk wisdom is typically stated as the belief that one should not change answers on objective tests because initial reactions to test questions are intuitively more accurate than subsequent responses.

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