The standard advice for multiple-choice tests is： If in doubt， stick with your first answer.

About 75% college students agree that changing their first choice will lower their score overall. In one study 55% instructors believed as well it would lower students scores while only 16% believed it would improve them.

And yet it is wrong.

One survey of 33 different studies conducted over 70 years found that， on average， people who change their answers do better than those who dont. In none of these studies did people get a lower score because they changed their minds.

Study after study shows that when you change your answer in a multiple-choice test， you are more likely to be changing it from wrong to right than right to wrong. So actually sticking with your first answer is， on average， the wrong strategy.

Why do so many people still say that you should stick with your first answer？ Its partly because it feels more painful to get an answer wrong because you changed it than wrong because you didnt change it.

So we tend to remember much more clearly the times when we changed from right to wrong. And so when taking a test we anticipate the regret we will feel and convince ourselves that our first instinct is probably right.

在做選擇題的時(shí)候，大家奉行一條原則：如果在選項(xiàng)中糾結(jié)，那么就選你最先認(rèn)定的那個(gè)答案。

約75%大學(xué)生認(rèn)為更改選擇題中自己最先認(rèn)定的答案會(huì)降低他們的考試分?jǐn)?shù)。在一項(xiàng)調(diào)查中，也有55%的老師同意這種觀點(diǎn)，只有16%的老師認(rèn)為更改自己最初認(rèn)定的選項(xiàng)會(huì)提高考試分?jǐn)?shù)。

但是這種想法是錯(cuò)的。

70多年里的33項(xiàng)研究顯示，一般來(lái)說(shuō)，修改選擇題答案比不修改答案的考試結(jié)果要好。在這些研究中，沒(méi)有哪項(xiàng)結(jié)果顯示修改選擇題答案會(huì)降低考試分?jǐn)?shù)。

一項(xiàng)接一項(xiàng)的研究表明，在做選擇題時(shí)，把答案改對(duì)的情況比把答案改錯(cuò)的情況要多。所以堅(jiān)持自己最初選擇的答案也不算是正確的考試策略。

那為什么這么多人仍然說(shuō)做選擇題時(shí)應(yīng)該堅(jiān)持自己最初選的那個(gè)答案呢？部分原因是：本來(lái)選對(duì)了后來(lái)卻改錯(cuò)了的痛苦程度相較于不改答案而做錯(cuò)題來(lái)說(shuō)要大多了。

所以我們會(huì)把改錯(cuò)答案的事情記得更清楚。于是在糾結(jié)要不要改答案的時(shí)候這種痛苦之情就會(huì)出現(xiàn)，讓我們覺(jué)得堅(jiān)持最初的選項(xiàng)是對(duì)的。