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From: mark@cbosgd.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.college,net.cse
Subject: Re:Computer Science GREs
Message-ID: <340@cbosgd.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 21-Sep-83 16:27:11 EDT
Article-I.D.: cbosgd.340
Posted: Wed Sep 21 16:27:11 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 22-Sep-83 04:22:45 EDT
References: <2058@yale-com.UUCP>
Organization: Bell Labs, Columbus
Lines: 24

One other tip - if you have a question you have no idea on, or
have narrowed it down to 2 or 3 answers and have to randomly
pick one, CHOOSE "B".  If you go through a typical multiple
choice test and sum up the various correct answers, you'll be
amazed how "B" is the most common answer.  The second most common
is C, and the least common is E.  (I can't remember if A or D is
more common, but I'd guess A.)

The reason for this is simple: put yourself in the place of the
person writing the test question.  You tend to write down the
correct answer and then try to dream up reasonable wrong answers.
You don't want to favor A, so you try to write down some others.
But you can't bring yourself to put it off too long while you're
trying to dream up more answers, so you settle for B or C.

They could solve this by randomizing the answers, but this would
mess up "E: none of the above" so I've never seen it done.

There is a penalty for guessing, but it's 1/4 point for a wrong
guess and you get 1 point for the right answer, so random guessing
should have zero effect.  Choosing B will probably have a slight
positive effect.  THIS IS NO SUBSTITUTE FOR KNOWING THE MATERIAL.
It is best reserved for filling in blank spots before turning in
the test.