It’s one of the most challenging and stressful issues for anyone taking a high-stakes, multiple choice exam. When you’re not sure that your original answer to a question is right, should you change it? Or, should you “trust your gut” and stick with your first response? Changing answers on multiple-choice tests can have major consequences. So should you?
There’s a long history of helpful scientific knowledge we can draw from. And in short, the answer is “it’s complicated.”
As one study summarized the research, “answer changing appears to benefit most examinees if they change answers for good reasons” (emphasis added). That “good reasons” bit is doing some heavy lifting.
While most studies show that people are somewhat more likely to benefit from changing answers on multiple-choice questions, a few have found the opposite. Many more studies have sought to better understand the complexity involved, since it’s clear that not everyone benefits in all situations.
Key takeaways
Here are some general guidelines that you can pull from the research on changing answers. These may be helpful in weighing whether to change your own answers on your licensing exam.
- Don’t believe anyone’s global statements about changing answers being good or bad. One study showed that more than a third of university faculty believed that changing answers on exams was generally harmful, despite most research showing otherwise. If those faculty members were telling students to “trust your gut” and stick with initial responses, they were probably making it harder for at least some students to pass their exams. The reality is more complicated than can be captured in a simple “good” or “bad.” Changing answers appears to help most people, most of the time. But it doesn’t help everyone, and it doesn’t work the same way for everyone.
- Those who already score well tend to gain more by changing answers. This isn’t surprising. The folks who already score well are least likely to be guessing when they change an answer. Their changes are more likely to reflect careful re-analysis of a question’s content.
- It matters what the question demands of you. Changing answers on straightforward factual questions may not offer much benefit, unless your original answer was just a guess and you then remembered the key fact the question was asking for. Changing answers is more likely to be helpful when the question demands analytical reasoning. In those situations, taking more time to calmly think through the question may lead you to a different (and more likely correct) answer.
- It matters why you’re revisiting a question. Was your initial answer rushed, or driven by anxiety? If that’s the case, and you can revisit the question with a more analytical, less anxious mindset, then changing your answer seems more likely to be helpful. Similarly, are you more confident in the changed answer? If changing an answer comes from a place of thoughtful review, it’s more likely to help. If it’s anxious, and you’re no more confident in a changed answer than you were in the original, then it may not be worth the trouble of changing.
Of course, even when research findings add nuance, the science here is still general. It provides averages, not individualized recommendations. For that, you need data on whether changing answers tends to help or hurt you specifically. Our new exam platform will tell you that, in our test-taking skills report.
When you take a practice exam with High Pass Education, you get a detailed report on both your results and your test-taking skills, including changing answers. The report will tell you specifically whether changing answers tended to work in your favor on that exam attempt, or not.
Both the research and our report are useful sources of information – the research to let you know it’s ok to change answers, and the individualized report to let you know whether doing so is working specifically for you.
