MAILING LISTS

I noticed something unusual in a couple of the
IRAT answer cards made by Epstein Learning and am
interested in this group's reaction to this:

1. In one card, the distribution of correct answers is
    A-5, B-8, C-14, D-9, E-14

2. In another card, a consecutive string of answers is:
     A E A C A D A D A D A E A C

    In particular, card 2 strikes me as problematic: I think
    students tend to fret when they start seeing patterns. Plus,
    it's hard to write questions where A is the correct choice
    every other time. For example, I often ask questions
    followed by, say, three statements (I, II, III)
    and then have students choose  A. I; B. II; C. I and III;
     D. I and II; E. all the above.

    In the case of card 1, where E is often "None of the Above,"
    I would have to start putting this option in another
    location, which strikes me as rather contrived.

I emailed Epstein Learning about this and they said the answers
are generated randomly. As a statistician, I have no reason to
doubt this statement. But a random sequence of the 5 letters doesn't
necessarily mean it's an optimal sequence of answers for a multiple
choice test.

--Laura

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Laura Chihara
Professor of Mathematics   507-222-4065 (office)
Dept of Mathematics        507-222-4312 (fax)
Carleton College
1 North College Street
Northfield MN 55057