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MCQs negative marking

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  • 04-05-2013 1:02pm
    #1
    tipptop1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 20 ✭


    Hi, just wondering for an mcq exam with 4 possible answers, 2 % for a correct one and -0.5% for a wrong answer, if you ticked all 4 boxes for just a question you didn't know the answer to, would you get 0.5%, instead of leaving it blank and getting nothing??

    Thanks in advance.


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    #2
    shruikan2553
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,113 ✭✭✭shruikan2553


    Probably not, I'd say if more than 1 box is ticked then it will be marked wrong. Could be wrong but would be very surprised if you could do that


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    #3
    Maldesu
    Registered Users Posts: 1,416 ✭✭✭Maldesu


    If I remember correctly from mine you just get a wrong answer. Though I never tried it, but that was what they had said.


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    #4
    chriity139
    Registered Users Posts: 939 ✭✭✭chriity139


    you can only pick 1 answer per question unless otherwise stated if not they just count it as a wrong answer. You may as well just leave the question you dont no blank


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    #5
    bbuzz
    Registered Users Posts: 207 ✭✭bbuzz


    tipptop1 wrote: »
    Hi, just wondering for an mcq exam with 4 possible answers, 2 % for a correct one and -0.5% for a wrong answer, if you ticked all 4 boxes for just a question you didn't know the answer to, would you get 0.5%, instead of leaving it blank and getting nothing??

    Thanks in advance.

    No, you can only have one answer per question, otherwise you get -0.5%.

    But you're correct in a way, negative marking tries to induce a mean score of 0; so if you guess every answer chances are you'll get 0%.

    In this case, those marks would work for a 5 possible answer mcq, but because there's only 4 possible answers the mean score for each question is 0.125 and not 0:

    (probability of right answer)x(score of right answer) + (probability of wrong answer)x(score of wrong answer) should = 0

    In this case:
    (1/4)x(2)+(3/4)x(-0.5)=0.125

    Essentially, if you guess every answer on the test you'll get 6.25% overall.


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