The Correction for Guessing

I have been reading about the use of the correction for guessing in multiple choice exams. This is where students lose 1/4 of a mark if they get a question wrong (assuming 5 answer choices, 1 is correct).
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1169935?uid=3737536&uid=2129&uid=2...
 It seems to improve the validity of MC exams:
http://www.jdentaled.org/content/70/4/378.full.pdf
Does anybody do this? I know it is used in the GRE (exam to get into PhD programs in the US) because I did the exam. It would certainly change student attitudes to their exam. I am unsure whether our university would even allow it - although I can't see why not. Any experiences with this?
Madeleine
 

glawrie's picture

I think that would be regarded as negative marking at UQ and is not permitted according to our UQ assessment policy. I have pasted the statement below:
Negative marking in multiple choice examinations, that is the practice of deducting marks for providing incorrect answers or formula marking to correct for guessing, is not permitted. Also, deducting marks for failure to undertake a specified task that is not part of the summative assessment is not permitted (e.g. taking off marks for not attending tutorials).
Gwen

Emma Bartle's picture

A method they looked at piloting in our MCQ assessments is certainty-based marking. In order to get the best marks, a student must discriminate between responses based on understanding and guesses. For each MCQ answer, students must also declare their level of confidence in their answer (1 = low, 2 = medium, 3 = high). The marking rubric is set up so that the marks awarded for each MCQ answer are based on the combination of whether their answer was correct/incorrect and their confidence level (generally a maximum of 6 marks available per answer).
So, on the rubric scale of 1-6, the two extremes are 6 marks if the student was correct and confident, 0 marks if they were incorrect and confident (as our MCQs are often asking the student for patient diagnosis and treatment plans for clinical scenarios). Someone correct but not confident (ie guessing) would also receive a lower amount of marks.
Emma

Madeleine Schultz's picture

Very interesting Emma! Maybe more suitable for medicine than plain old science.
QUT does not seem to prohibit negative marking as far as I can see but I am not brave enough to try it.

Madeleine Schultz's picture

Steph Beames just pointed me to this website:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/lapt/
It has a good summary of what Emma describes.

Emma Bartle's picture

Hi Madeleine/Steph,
Thanks for the website reference! Great summary. I hadn't come across that one before.
Cheers,
Emma