Unbelieveable Stats Test Story!!!

[bmills072200]

Okay, so I go to take my Stats test this morning. I totally underestimated the test. I used the IC flashcards and I watched to 2 of the free online videos last night, one on Null Hypothesis, which proved very helpful.

Once I started taking the test I felt numb. I quickly realized that I did not know the subject as well as I thought. There were 101 questions. I probably knew 25% of the questions for certain. 50% I was able to narrow to 2 and make a logical guess and the other 25% were almost complete guesses. It took me amost the full 2 hours and by the end I was prepared for a failing score. I had already written it off and I was thinking things like, "Well, this will teach me my lesson" and "It's only $90."

Anyway, I go to get my scores and I see the 48 and I think, "Thank God, I passed right on the number!" Then I realized that I was looking at the "Passing Grade Score" not my actual score. Then I scroll down and almost pass out as I see the 67!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am still convinced that it was a mistake. I stared at it for almost 5 minutes before I signed out.

I did almost all of my studying for this test last night and I am not telling this story to encourage others to try to take this test as I did, because I was not prepared...

Anyway, I was curious if anyone else had any similar stories???

[studyhard]

Yes, I've taken tests where I did what you said----knew 25%, ruled it down to two answers on 50% and guessed on the rest. I have never gotten lower than a 60 on anything like that, so I guess it works.

Congratulations!

[GettinMyBA]

Whatever happened - you passed one of the hardest exams.... congrats!!

[WendyR]

Wow - that is unbelievable! Congratulations to you. I plan to take this exam in August - I hope I have a great success story like this one. hilarious

[ShotoJuku]

[SIZE="5"]Great Story & Congrats!![/SIZE]

[Devilry]

That is such a great story, congrats!

[larry7crys]

I wish I had that great story when I took my stats exam. I was sweating bullets until I found out my exam score!

[dmdean]

Great story!!! I take my first test this week and it is encouraging to hear this kind of feedback


Dmdean

[barcotta]

First off--congratulations! Either you knew much more--or maybe much less--then you thought. It has been my experience with the CLEP and DSST tests in particular that there is almost always one ridiculous option per question. That leaves three remaining options on a DSST and four on a CLEP. The majority of the time, there is at least one other highly unlikely option. Now you're at 50/50 for the DSST and you still have to do a little wading for a CLEP--although because they supply five options per question I think they include a greater number of obviously incorrect choices.

So, let's assume that for most questions on most CLEP and DSST exams, you can narrow it down to one of two options. One is the correct answer. The other is the answer-that-looks-like-it-also-could-be-the-correct-answer-to-someone-who-has-studied-but-isn't-sure-about-this-question. I wonder, then, if you're better off flipping a coin sometimes so that you don't fall into too many traps. It seems to me, if you're guessing wildly with a 50/50 chance of hitting the correct answer--you should get about half of those correct. If, however, you take the bait on the close but incorrect answers--maybe your percentage on those 50/50 questions drops.

Since we can't see our answers, there's no way to tell--although I guess you could use some of the practice exams for that--but I never did. Incidentally, on my last exam, which happened to be an ECE, I tallied and gave myself credit as follows:

I know the answer: 100%
50/50: 50%
Guess: 25%

My raw percentage estimate matched the raw percentage reported on the exam results within 2-4%. This does not support my theory but does support my estimation method!

I always felt I was prepared enough that I still would try to select the best answer when testing--but it occurred to me many times to just pick one based on some other criteria. Anyone else have any theories like this?