Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-7qhmt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-29T13:29:41.677Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

MCQ technique

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Brian Dalal*
Affiliation:
Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham NG7 2UH
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Candidates taking multiple choice question (MCQ) examinations are often unsure of the best strategy to use when uncertain of the answer to a question. Some authorities advocate a cautious ‘never guess' strategy and others suggest a bold ‘guess everything’ approach. In this study, candidates who had taken a MCQ paper were asked to go back and guess the questions initially marked ‘don't know’. The resultant ‘guess scores' ranged from −0.6% to 6%. It was concluded that many candidates could substantially increase their scores by adopting a bolder approach. It is proposed that the guess score is a useful measure of the effectiveness of the candidate's MCQ technique.

Type
Education
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1994

References

Fleming, P.R. (1988) The profitability of ‘guessing’ in multiple choice papers. Medical Education, 22, 509513.Google Scholar
Harden, R. McG., Brown, R.A., Biran, L.A., Dallas Ross, W.P. & Wakeford, R.E. (1976) Multiple choice questions: to guess or not to guess. Medical Education, 10, 2732.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holden, N.L. (1987) Examiantion Techniques in Psychiatry. London: Hodder & Stoughton.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.