[IPAC-List] Threatening a Penalty for Guessing

[Joel Wiesen]

Thanks for your thoughtful comments, Winfred.

Do I understand you correctly as saying it is standard practice to 
correct both speeded and non-speeded test for guessing, but that you do 
not do so for your (non-speeded) knowledge tests?

If so, why do you not correct for guessing?

Thx.

Joel



- -
Joel P. Wiesen, Ph.D., Director
Applied Personnel Research
62 Candlewood Road
Scarsdale, NY 10583-6040
(617) 244-8859
http://appliedpersonnelresearch.com




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Winfred Arthur, Jr. wrote:

> Joel, some general thoughts are embedded below:

> 

> On 4/27/2010 8:19 AM, Joel Wiesen wrote:

>> If a test's instructions say "you may be penalized for questions you

>> mark incorrectly" and then the grading does not correct for guessing,

>> what might the effect be?

> well, my first thought is that the use of "may" makes this problematic.  

> it shld state explicitly whether one is going to do so or not.  "may" 

> without specifying the conditions under which this will or will not be 

> invoked seems to me to be a recipe for . . . well, problems!

> 

> and whereas i have not seen any empirical rsch or data on this, the 

> college board uses this instruction set for some sections of the SAT 

> [they do not use "may"; they use "will"] and it is my impression that 

> students are more likely to leave these items blank than guess when they 

> do not know the answer.

> 

>>

>> Has anyone had practical experience with such instructions? Do test 

>> takers pay attention to such instructions?

> not personally.  indeed to the contrary, i use an instruction set that 

> states that there is no penalty for guessing and so it is in one's best 

> interest to guess if one does not know the answer.  subsequently, i 

> rarely get any non-responses.  of course, these are knowledge tests.

>>

>> Is there research on this type of ambiguous ("may be penalized") test 

>> instruction?

>>

> not that i am aware of; but then i have not done a lit search either.

>> (This particular instruction was used on a speeded (clerical speed)

>> portion of a longer test for a craft type job.)

> for what it is worth, it is common, if not stand practice to correct 

> these types of tests for accuracy as well.

> 

> hope this is somewhat useful.

> 

> thanks.

> 

> - winfred