Prev. Article Next Article Table of Contents

Article

Cheating Probabilities on Multiple Choice Tests

Citing Articles

Your current credentials do not allow retrieval of the full text.

Purchase the full-text

PDF/HTML,
figures/images,
references and tables,
(where available)

Gaspard T. Rizzuto and Fred Walters

University of Southwestern Louisiana, Department of Chemistry, PO Box 44370, Layfayette, LA 70504-4370

J. Chem. Educ., 1997, 74 (10), p 1185

DOI: 10.1021/ed074p1185

Publication Date (Web): October 1, 1997

Section:

History, Education, and Documentation

Abstract

This paper is strictly based on mathematical statistics and as such does not depend on prior performance and assumes the probability of each choice to be identical. In a real life situation, the probability of two students having identical responses becomes larger the better the students are. However the mathematical model is developed for all responses, both correct and incorrect, and provides a baseline for evaluation. David Harpp and coworkers (2, 3) at McGill University have evaluated ratios of exact errors in common (EEIC) to errors in common (EIC) and differences (D). In pairings where the ratio EEIC/EIC was greater than 0.75, the pair had unusually high odds against their answer pattern being random. Detection of copying of the EEIC/D ratios at values >1.0 indicate that pairs of these students were seated adjacent to one another and copied from one another. The original papers should be examined for details.

Keywords (Audience):

High School / Introductory Chemistry

Keywords (Domain):

Chemical Education Research

Keywords (Pedagogy):

Textbooks / Reference Books

Keywords (Subject):

Learning Theories

View: Hi-Res PDF | PDF w/ Links

Citing Articles

Citation data is made available by participants in CrossRef's Cited-by Linking service. For a more comprehensive list of citations to this article, users are encouraged to perform a search in SciFinder.

This article has been cited by 2 ACS Journal articles (2 most recent appear below).

Crime in the Classroom Part IV: Conclusions
David N. Harpp
Journal of Chemical Education2008 85 (6), 805
- Crime in the Classroom Part IV: Conclusions
  David N. Harpp
  Journal of Chemical Education2008 85 (6), 805
  In 1990, the McGill University Senate established regulations governing how multiple-choice exams are to be conducted. The primary rules require multiple-version exams (scrambled question and if possible, scrambled answer positions) as well as assigned ...
  Abstract | Hi-Res PDF | PDF w/ Links
A Statistical Analysis of Infrequent Events on Multiple-Choice Tests That Indicate Probable Cheating
Michael J. Sundermann
Journal of Chemical Education2008 85 (4), 568
- A Statistical Analysis of Infrequent Events on Multiple-Choice Tests That Indicate Probable Cheating
  Michael J. Sundermann
  Journal of Chemical Education2008 85 (4), 568
  A statistical analysis of multiple-choice answers is performed to identify anomalies that can be used as evidence of student cheating. The ratio of exact errors in common (EEIC: two students put the same wrong answer for a question) to differences (D: two ...
  Abstract | Hi-Res PDF | PDF w/ Links