STUDENT PERCEPTIONS OF CHANGING ANSWERS ON MULTIPLE-CHOICE EXAMINATIONS

The belief that changing answers on examinations is detrimental persis ts in spite of empirical research which does not support that belief. While the research in education has consistently shown that changing a nswers is beneficial, few studies have been done on the behavior and p sychological process of changing answers. This qualitative study found that students prefer not to change answers and do not believe it is a dvantageous to do so. Most students took tests in such a manner that a t least a portion of the questions were re-read. Reasons given for cha nging answers included reconsidering the answers after re-reading the question, mismarking the answer sheet, re-guessing, and receiving a cl ue later in the test. The students who changed answers often found the y had misread the questions initially when they re-read it. Re-reading the question was most likely to result in a change from wrong to figh t. Re-guessing was not found to be as beneficial to the student scores .