IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/edecon/v26y2018i2p179-193.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do streaks matter in multiple-choice tests?

Author

Listed:
  • Hubert János Kiss
  • Adrienn Selei

Abstract

Success in life is determined to a large extent by school performance, which in turn depends heavily on grades obtained in exams. In this study, we investigate a particular type of exam: multiple-choice tests. More concretely, we study if patterns of correct answers in multiple-choice tests affect performance. We design an experiment to study if students who take a multiple-choice test with streaks of identical answers earn fewer points than students taking a test with a variable pattern of answers, and we study several potential mechanisms. We do not find a clear treatment effect, as multiple-choice test points were not significantly lower in a consistent manner in the treatment groups. We observe that in a streak, the likelihood to choose a different and incorrect answer than the previous ones is higher in the treated group. The number of identical previous answers does not seem to explain these choices of incorrect answers.

Suggested Citation

  • Hubert János Kiss & Adrienn Selei, 2018. "Do streaks matter in multiple-choice tests?," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 26(2), pages 179-193, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:edecon:v:26:y:2018:i:2:p:179-193
    DOI: 10.1080/09645292.2017.1382444
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09645292.2017.1382444
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09645292.2017.1382444?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:edecon:v:26:y:2018:i:2:p:179-193. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CEDE20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.