An Analysis on the Corrective Formula for Multiple Choice Questions

Authors

  • Gerardo Martínez-Guzmán Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla
  • María Beatriz Bernabe-Loranca Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla
  • John Cardiff Technological University of Dublin
  • Carmen Cerón-Garnica Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla
  • Alfonso Garcés-Báez Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13053/cys-28-4-5297

Keywords:

Partial knowledge, penalty formula, distracters, testb, multiple choice

Abstract

In multiple choice questions, an element inherent to this type of evaluation arises that, due to the same evaluation format, that is by chance, a percentage of the correct answers do not re ect the mastery of the question content being evaluated. For this reason, in many cases, a correction formula is applied that penalizes incorrect answers, leaving unanswered questions without penalty. Of course, it is necessary to mention this to the applicant prior to the start of the test. The penalty in the case of questions with k alternatives where only one is correct and all the others are incorrect, depends on the number of options and in most applications consists of subtracting a value of 1 k 1 foreach incorrect answer. This formula assumes that the student knows the correct answer, or that they ignore the question and answer randomly. This is di cult to achieve in practice, since the student usually has partial knowledge of the question theme, helping them to eliminate one or more alternatives. In this paper, an analysis is made of the value of the penalty in cases where partial knowledge on the part of the applicant is considered, which allows them to discard one or more distracters.

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Published

2024-12-03

Issue

Vol. 28 No. 4 (2024): 28(4) 2024

Section

Articles of the Thematic Section

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