Students as Rational Actors in Multiple-choice Tests and How to Mark their Mistakes
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54790/rccs.69Keywords:
closed-ended question, exam, grading, penalty, rational action, student, testAbstract
Sociologists teaching at universities have seen how multiple-choice tests with closed-ended questions have become the norm in the discipline. If wrong answers are not penalised, these tests become a context that favours the emergence of rational actors in the form of the student-player. Such students minimise their effort by taking advantage of the probability of answering correctly out of luck. By applying the definition of a Bernoulli random variable, this methodological note presents the score that must be awarded to incorrect answers in exams, regardless of the number of questions and response options. Deviating from this score means one of two things: favouring the emergence of the student-player, or overly penalising the risks taken by students when sitting exams.
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