Bib Card-Changing Answers on Exams

Jordan, L., & Johnson, D. (1990). The relationship between changing answers and performance on multiple-choice nursing examinations. Journal Of Nursing Education, 29(8), 337-340.

Short Thesis statement: The purpose of this article is to investigate answer changing on multiple choice exam questions by undergraduate nursing students. This article meets bib requirement for writing test questions as listed on the course calendar.

Content Summary: This article was conducted on a sample of 284 students enrolled in the upper level baccalaureate-nursing program. Scantrons from the first, second, third, and fourth semesters were reviewed for erasures and recording of the answer change when the answer was changed. The most common reason students’ changes scores on exams is the increase their overall score. It is the common belief among nursing students that changing answers will not improve exam scores. The total number of examination items reviewed included those answers changed from right to wrong, wrong to right, or wrong to wrong. More students who changed answers during the exam changed from wrong to right (55%) versus (18%) who changed answers from right to wrong. It was found that there was no difference in the improvement of scores for students in all levels. This article does suggest that further study is needed regarding the main reason that students change their answers. It is the common belief that when a student changes answers they change to the wrong answer, however, this study showed differently. The results of this study showed that answers are more commonly changed from the wrong answer to the right answer; however, students need to change answers judiciously.

Evaluations In Nursing Education/Advance Practice Nurse: This article is beneficial for the nursing educator. The authors suggested that faculty members need to rethink the old adage that changing answers on exams will result in negative results. As a future nurse educator, this...