School Tips: About Scantron Tests

If you’ve taken the local achievement test such as the National College Aptitude Examination (NCAE) and Standard Achievement Test (SAT), chances are you’ve already encountered those answer sheets with a lot of circles. Those types of papers are called Scantron sheets, named after the company who first produced them. These type of examinations, commonly used for standardized tests, are checked with a machine called a scanner which reads the answers using lasers, and then calculates the score. In the Philippines, these are used in most of the major licensure examinations to facilitate easier checking. Thus, knowing how to answer these type of test is very vital to get a good mark in an examination. So get ready to jot down notes as we discuss everything you need to know about scantron tests.

The typical Scantron test typically invole multiple choice questions wherein the examinee must shade the circle or the bubble to encode his answer. After that, the sheet is run through a Scantron Machine that uses optical mark recognition to check and tabulate the correct answers. But first, an answer key is fed to the machine to guide it in correcting the papers

Why a #2 Pencil? (My teachers usually do prescribe the Mongol brand.)

It is because #2 pencils leave the perfect amount of Graphite behind.  Because during the earlier times, the marks were scored by shining a light though the paper; the bubbles that blocked the light counted as the marked answer. With graphite, when the laser shines on the shaded part, it appears opaque and then counts as one point.

I read about some Scantron myths in the internet and here are some of them:

1) Lip Balm the Margin

Somehow the rumor started a while back that you could game a Scantron Machine simply by taking Chapstick and smearing it along the left hand side of the sheet. The theory was the Chapstick would interfere with the scanning light and trick the machine into counting all of your answers as correct. Unfortunately, there is absolutely no merit to this, and the best case scenario it will result in is making your entire test ungradeable. 

2) Use a Strip of Tape to Confuse the Scanner

This is a slightly more effective variation of the "urban legend" chapstick method. In this method, a strip of clear tape is placed alongside the black lines on the Scantron form and the reflection wreaks havoc on the scanning light, causing the machine to malfunction. Although there's not even a guarantee this will put the machine out of commission, you're once again faced with the problem of an outcome where at best you get no grade, and at worst you're failing the exam.(OPPapers.com)

The thing here with these aforementioned techniques is that they don’t work at all and are merely urban legends.

Given the low likelihood of gaming the system, it's time to employ some more basic tactics for besting a multiple choice test. The following three methods are typically your best options for when no amount of rereading the question is going to magically provide you with the answer.

1) Process of Elimination

If you can rule out any of the answers on multiple choice exams, your chances of making a correct guess are greatly increased. If any of the possible answers require considerable assumptions or are only true under very specific conditions you can most likely eliminate those from consideration. Once you've narrowed down your options then it's time to flip a coin and bubble in your answer.

2) Choose from the Middle

You may have heard "C" is the most common multiple choice answer, and there is actually some merit to that. If you are dealing with a four option multiple choice test, you will tend to score about 5 percent higher by randomly guessing "B" and "C" as opposed to "A" and "D". Unfortunately, this still leaves you with a grade somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 percent, and a definite fail. However, keeping this strategy in mind for select questions where you're forced to choose blindly can help boost your overall score.

3) Repose Each Question as True/False

If you don’t know the answer to the question, ask the question with each answer inserted as a statement.  If the sentence sounds right, then it probably is, if it sounds ridiculous, then cross it off and try the next.

4) Go with your "Gut"

Although it's hardly a substitute for actually knowing the answer, it has been shown that your gut or first instinct is often correct, and you can sometimes tap into correct information on a subconscious level. So, if you don't recall the answer but one of the choices just feels right, it's almost always worthwhile to stick to your guns and just mark it down without over thinking. But, it's probably not advisable to tackle an entire test on instinct alone.

5) Absolute questions are always FALSE

In true or false items in scantron exams, always bear in mind that absolute statements – statements that describe something as general – are typically FALSE. Example of these are statements with “Always” and “Undoubtedly”.

Source: OPPapers.com and Wikipedia