Defeat the "test-wise" strategies of students who don't study

The whole point of testing is to encourage learning. If students can guess the answers to a test, they will not study for it. Therefore, to motivate students to study and learn, one must design quiz items that are not easily guessed without good studying. One must also design a test so that answers are not obvious to the student who has merely skimmed the assignment, or studied only highlighted words, or read only summaries.


In order not to encourage superficial studying, one must defeat the common "rules of thumb" which students use to guess correct answers. When these are eliminating, learning the material becomes the easiest way to pass a quiz.

Rule of thumb: "Pick the longest answer."
Way to defeat this strategy: make sure the longest answer is right about a fifth of the time (if there are five alternatives for each question)

Rule of thumb: "Pick the 'b' alternative."
Way to defeat this strategy: make sure each answer is used the same number of times, in random order.

Rule of thumb: "Never pick an answer which uses the word 'always' or 'never' in it."
Way to defeat this strategy: make sure such answers are correct about a fifth of the time

Rule of thumb: "If there are two answers which express opposites, pick one or the other and ignore other alternatives."
Way to defeat this strategy: sometimes offer opposites when neither is correct.

Rule of thumb: "If in doubt, guess."
Way to minimize the impact of this strategy: use five alternatives instead of three or four

Rule of thumb: "Pick the scientific-sounding answer."
Way to defeat this strategy: use scientific sounding jargon in wrong answers

Rule of thumb: "Don't pick an answer which is too simple or obvious."
Way to defeat this strategy: sometimes make the simple, obvious answer the correct one.

Rule of thumb: "Pick a word which you remember was related to the topic."
Way to defeat this strategy: when drawing up distracters (wrong answers) use terminology from the same area of the text as the right answer, but in distracters use those words incorrectly so the wrong answers are definitely wrong.

Source: http://www.psychwww.com/selfquiz/aboutq.htm