Roger_Dooley

One of my favorite blogs, Freakonomics, describes Harvard research that shows male SAT takers guess more than females. This is attributed to the penalty for incorrect answers; women are apparently more inclined to leave a blank answer in that situation.
Freakonomics SAT Strategy by Gender: Men Guess, Women Leave it Blank

Does this create a gender bias?

floridadad55

So you propose to eliminate all standardized tests because women guess less?

What if research shows that jewish and asian females guess at the same rate as men?

Even if what you say is true, so what?

Guessing will not have a material impact on your SAT score.

bluebayou

Perhaps another reason to support the ACT -- no penalty for guessing.

Floridadad: according to the study, the authors conclude that the lack of guessing does negatively impact scores, some 70-80 points on a full length SAT.

GoingWithTheTide

I'm a male, and I feel more inclined to guess on an answer rather than leave it blank. But the thought of getting points marked off for guessing wrong irked me, so I always second-guessed my answer. With the ACT, however, I knew I should guess and move on, which worked quite well, and so my ACT ended up being better.

Roger_Dooley

Floridadad55, I'm not proposing anything, just reporting the findings. I actually believe in standardized tests as one element of a comprehensive admissions process.

But, if this research holds up, I could see the SAT folks being pressured to remove the guessing penalty.

rodney

^^wonder if eliminating that guessing penalty would eliminate the misconception that the ACT is easier than the SAT and, in addition, that many perform better on the ACT....

More level playing field.....

floridadad55

Blue Bayou:

Colleges should not be saying that someone who gets a 2200 is "better" than someone getting a 2100.

The test results should not be viewed that narrowly.

floridadad55

So if the stats show that Italian Americans do not guess as much as Jewish Americans, does that mean that the test is "biased" against Italian Americans.

Or what if people from the midwest guess less than people from California?.

No test is perfect.

But I have found in life that people with high SAT scores are indeed smarter academically than those that have lower scores. By the way, I myself only got a 1200 (in the days before the writing section). My son, who evidently got his mother's genes, scored a 2300.

Descartesz

Of course it will. There is a subtractive penalty for wrongly answered questions vis-a-vis no penalty for unanswered questions. Thus does a testtaker's personality enter in to the score: the more risk-tolerant are apt to answer when lacking certainty, the more cautious to leave it blank. The penalty is such that the elimination of at least one answer choice on a question improves your odds to random or better, but how many testtaker's are this careful in their evaluation before venturing a wild guess? Moreover, how many are not wildly guessing but, lacking reasoned certainty, are scared to trust to still-useful intuition.The penalty discourages the use of intuition, too.

There really is no reason why this should be a factor in a test and it could easily be removed by dispensing with the guessing penalty as the ACT does.

Descartesz

In order to answer this question, I suppose one could look at ACT scores, where the penalty does not apply, and see if gender-differentiated performance gaps are just as severe there as with SAT scores.

wavylays94

You assume that guessing has a negative effect, but if just one in five of your guesses is correct, it evens out.

wavylays94

And I agree that the SAT, to an extent, measures intelligence. Those who score low are likely not as smart as those who score high. Of course, 50-80 points shouldn't be seen as much. Depending on the day, a kid with a 2200 could get a 2100 or a 2260..

wizkid94

Is the abstract implying that females can eliminate wrong answers in some cases and still choose not to answer questions because they are not certain of the correct answers? If it's not implying that, then what is it implying? That blind guessing actually helps? I don't see any merit to that. If women choose not to guess in cases in which it is propitious to guess (like when they can eliminate one or more answers), then they need to adopt a new testing strategy because they are working themselves against the odds. Whatever the tendency of a specific sex might be, they can be taught the best strategy for guessing. Eliminating the guessing penalty might be one way of solving the "problem," but it's not neccesarily necessary to do that.

Roger_Dooley

I think the suggestion is that guessing is usually a good idea except on those questions where any answer seems equally probable. Therefore, averaged across many individuals, moderately aggressive guessing (though not totally random guessing) will result in higher scores.

A risk-averse individual, female or otherwise, might avoid guessing even if one or two possibilities could be safely eliminated. This risk aversion could result in lower scores, on average.

Vlklngboy11

It's common sense to guess. If you can safely eliminate one answer than assume your guess isn't totally blind and more likely to be right than the 1/4 chance you get from blindly guessing for the remaining answers you had after you eliminated the obviously wrong answer it is to your benefit to guess.