# Option bias on multiple choice tests.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/option-bias-on-multiple-choice-tests/620148
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [April 27, 2012, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/option-bias-on-multiple-choice-tests/620148 "2012-04-27T16:45:47Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@chowching](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowching)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2012, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/option-bias-on-multiple-choice-tests/620148/1 "2012-04-27T16:45:47Z")
My professor told us during our review yesterday that there was a study where they found out that test makers, unconsciously, are more likely to place the correct answer to a multiple choice question either on letter B or letter C. Well I looked at my past test papers and saw that the correct answers are more frequent in B or C than in A or D. Suppose you are answering/making a multiple choice test with choices A-D:
- Where will you likely place the correct answer?
- On the previous tests that you made/took, which letters are more frequent?
- If you really do not have any idea what the answer is to a question, which letter would you choose?
I’ll be taking my licensure exam in a few months and I just want an idea where to place my bets in case I chance upon a question which I really do not know the answer. Thanks everyone. 🙂
---
### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2012, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/option-bias-on-multiple-choice-tests/620148/2 "2012-04-27T16:51:38Z")
I suspect that many professionally-made tests randomize the order of the choices, to prevent just such bias.
---
### Author:  [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2012, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/option-bias-on-multiple-choice-tests/620148/3 "2012-04-27T16:55:51Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#):
>
> I suspect that many professionally-made tests randomize the order of the choices, to prevent just such bias.
Some professors do, too. If you can program a computer at all, it’s pretty easy to write a program to do this. That’s especially helpful when you have to make several different versions of a multiple-choice exam to cut down on cheating.
---
### Author:  [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2012, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/option-bias-on-multiple-choice-tests/620148/4 "2012-04-27T17:20:10Z")
Always pick C, [especially on a True/False test](http://www.collegehumor.com/article/1019951/the-answer-is-not-always-c).
I was working on a question/answer shuffler that allowed some to be “locked in,” e.g. so that “all of the above” was always D. I never got around to finishing it, though.
---
### Author:  [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2012, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/option-bias-on-multiple-choice-tests/620148/5 "2012-04-27T17:29:39Z")
Licensure in what? The NCLEX (required for LPN and RN licensure) is computer randomized to control for this quirk. So it’s not a good strategy for that test.
---
### Author:  [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2012, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/option-bias-on-multiple-choice-tests/620148/6 "2012-04-27T19:49:47Z")
I had a teacher once who made a test where every correct answer (50 questions) except for one was choice ‘A’. It wasn’t that hard of a test but it stressed the hell out of us taking it especially when we got to the one that didn’t fit the pattern.
---
### Author:  [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2012, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/option-bias-on-multiple-choice-tests/620148/7 "2012-04-27T21:30:06Z")
Ex-college prof: Only one class, a lower than low level course, had multiple choice questions. The software to select questions, etc., had a answer shuffler so I never thought about it.
On my own tests, I liked to have the first question be a set of 5 true/false sub-questions, where each and every one sounded quite plausible. Did a little randomization of order so that it wouldn’t all be trues, then falses. But I think I usually made sure the first one was true just to get things rolling.
(Then for the next couple questions I tended to make them easier so that people might start off in a hopeful mindframe.)
I have no idea who generates large multiple choice tests by hand anymore.
---
### Author:  [@chowching](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowching)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2012, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/option-bias-on-multiple-choice-tests/620148/8 "2012-04-27T22:52:31Z")
Hah. How can I not think of that? Of course they would probably randomize the answers. That would be practical. The test is a licensure exam after all. Why did my teacher ever told gave us that tip? Maybe it only applies to tests made by teachers for classroom use.
---
### Author:  [@chowching](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowching)
#### Post date: [April 27, 2012, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/option-bias-on-multiple-choice-tests/620148/9 "2012-04-27T22:53:32Z")
> [@WhyNot](#):
>
> Licensure in what? The NCLEX (required for LPN and RN licensure) is computer randomized to control for this quirk. So it’s not a good strategy for that test.
Licensure in teaching. 🙂
---
### Author:  [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2012, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/option-bias-on-multiple-choice-tests/620148/10 "2012-04-28T00:07:36Z")
> [@chowching](#):
>
> Licensure in teaching. 🙂
YAY! Congratulations! So, now you know something valuable for your future career: there are answer randomizers! So your students won’t be able to get away with cheap tricks like, “what in doubt, pick C!” 😃
---
### Author:  [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)
#### Post date: [April 28, 2012, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/option-bias-on-multiple-choice-tests/620148/11 "2012-04-28T01:00:21Z")
I tell my students to guess the longer answer when they are stumped on the AP exam. Mostly this is just so that they have a tie-breaker criteria so that they don’t get stressed out and waste time going back and forth between two answers in a loop, but also because I do think it’s a little more likely that the more carefully qualified answer is correct. I have noticed this trend from having read pretty much every released AP English Language test from 1983 on, most of them over and over and over again.