Effect of changing the number of item responses from five to four in the same test

Abstract

Items with four choices and items with five choices were commonly used in the same civil service examination. It was discovered that a good many applicants were placing a mark in the fifth space on the answer sheet when the items on the question sheets had only four possible responses. A count of the total number of such marks in a written test showed a total that could hardly have occurred by chance. Technicians concluded that certain precautions should be taken to reduce the undesirable results of using a different number of distractors in the same examination. These included special instructions, reduction of the number of alternate groups, and restriction of a varying number of choices to the better qualified groups, when practicable. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)