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breckenridgeback t1_j6nhre4 wrote

Reply to comment by Lithuim in ELI5 - When filling multiple choice bubbles at random why only go with 1 letter? by Stellar_Panda

That's a pretty big "if", though. A lot of tests are written by hand and bias away from long answer streaks and first/last answer choices.

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AcusTwinhammer t1_j6o8gdy wrote

Yes--back when I was in high school in the late 80s, one of my teachers also taught a SAT prep class, and at the time they were teaching a strategy where if you had no idea and just had to guess, then avoid ACEs and doubles. A was too easy, E too hard, C too obvious, and test creators don't like answer streaks. I would assume test creation methodology has changed for the SAT in 30 years, but it still may be helpful for any human-created multiple choice tests out there.

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cyklone117 t1_j6olruy wrote

I had a friend in high school who used the magician's run, a.k.a. ABBACADABBA

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breckenridgeback t1_j6olqhr wrote

It would surprise me if that were accurate for the SAT even back then.

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AcusTwinhammer t1_j6or182 wrote

I didn't take the class, it was just a quick summary he gave of part of his class, but if humans are selecting the answers, or even just reviewing and editing the answers, there is going to be some sort of bias--"that's too many Cs in a row," or "there's too many As in this section." Whether or not one specific "SAT tips!" advice or another was actually better, I don't know.

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