Point deduction

Note: DO NOT take this debate if you are unfamiliar with the terms used in my case. If you are unclear on the topic but are interested, please ask in the comments, and then take it after I answer. Also, being from Australia there might be small differences with the USA education system (or systems) . Resolved: Point deduction is a better test marking system than the one currently in place Intro Often people question things in education like standardised tests, what should be evaluated etc. One thing that is not properly thought of is how things (ie. Tests) should be evaluated. Since evaluation of students (tests or no tests as an example) and the method behind each form of evaluation (ie. The 2 systems in this debate) are critical to assessing what students have learnt, it is key to examine how tests are scored. Firstly, let's just clarify a resolution that would otherwise be torn apart semantically: 1. Point deduction will only refer to the system I put forth, and the one currently in place will refer to the one mentioned (although if people disagree with the ‘one in place’ , it is something I’m willing to compromise on) 2. Better is a general word, in the debate it will mean something along the lines of - superior education wise (of course, that's part of the debate) 3. The 'one currently in place' is described below. 4. If there are issues with the definition of the 2 systems, ask in the comments. A few other things about this debate before I begin: 1. No undue semantics 2. For the purposes of simplicity, point deduction will only apply in the following types of situations: 1.Multiple choice 2. Self answer questions, yet only of these 2 formats- 1. 1 word answer. Ie. The word for a definition in science say. 2. Questions like found in maths tests - ie. Sq. rt. 196, say, where the student supplies his own answer. 3. Pro (myself) , is allowed to expand upon the point deduction system to refute criticisms from Con (ie. Con asks about working marks for Maths, I clarify as to how that would work under point deduction) 4. I'd prefer it if Con began his assault in R1, leaving me able to expand in R2 and letting us have a longer debate. Now in case this is unclear, this debate is NOT about point deduction being used in things like extended responses. Again, if there are confusions about this, ask in the comments and I'll explain there. Now, onto the debate. The 2 Systems To give an idea of the 2 systems, we’ll start with the standard system. Let’s say there’s 100 1 mark questions for a 100% score of 100. Let’s also say that the students gets 50 correct and 50 wrong – with all the wrong answers being incorrect answers (as in to say they answered) . 50 correct questions = 50 marks 50 wrong answers = 0 Total = 50/10 Note that if the person did not answer the questions they got wrong that the score would not change – ie. ‘marks are not deducted for incorrect answers’ , so we can change these 50 non correct answers into any combination of incorrect and not attempted questions and get the same score – guessing is rewarded. Now, here’s how my proposed point deductions system works: 1. Each question in the test is assigned a rank (lower numbers indicate tougher questions when ranks are varied) , similar to the current system (in the scenario described above, 1 mark for each question) , which is used to score the test 2. Students start with perfect scores (this can be changed, but it’s complicated) 3. If a student gets a question right, he/she loses no marks 4. If a student does not attempt a question, he/she loses marks equal to the rank 5. If a student attempts a question and gets it wrong, he/she loses marks equal to 2.5 times the questions ranks (hence, lower numbers being tougher questions – less penalties for being wrong because of higher question difficulty) So let’s say we take the same test under point deduction. The student starts with a perfect score of 250 (maximum possible loss of marks, assuming all questions are rank 1). Like before he gets 50 questions correct, so his score stays on 250. Now, however comes the key point. The student’s score, depending upon the no. of incorrect answers vs. non-attempts, will vary between 125 and 200. For example, let’s say the student got 25 wrong and had 25 non-attempts, his score will be 162.5. However, let’s say the student gets 15 wrong and has 35 non-attempts, his score will be 177.5. Therefore, this system creates marks based upon 3 categories – correct, incorrect and non-attempts, vs. the current system with only correct and incorrect. Problems with guessing Okay, as one might be able to deduce, the major problem with the current system is guessing. Now, what is wrong with this? What is wrong is that tests are meant to determine if a student has learnt what they have been taught, and this is done through forms of questioning (ie. Multiple choice) , and these forms of questioning can produce incorrect results, due to guessing. As an example, let’s say we have 8 multiple choice questions, with answers A, B, C, D and our poor friend Billy has no clue as to the answer of these questions whatsoever or which answers are more likely. Clearly, what a test marker wants to know is does Billy know the answer to these questions; to which the answer is no. However, Billy knows that guessing wildly is not punished, so he answers A on all the questions. On average, Billy will get 2 questions right. Now, this will result in those who wished to garner what Billy has learnt being given an inflated view of his ability’s. Conversely, if Billy knows that there’s a strong penalty for incorrect answers (ie. 2 incorrect answers = 5 non-attempts), it’s not in his best interests to wildly guess and he won’t guess, leaving the questions blank and giving the examiner a better understanding of Billy’s knowledge. Of course, if Billy does decide to guess, instead of there being an incentive to guess, there is now a disincentive to guessing. Let’s show briefly why guessing is a bad policy to be encouraging, teacher feedback aside. Scenario: David wants to buy some shares. Unfortunately, he does not know some key financial terms and is only 2/3 (arbitrary) sure that he is making a sound financial investment. Also, this investment would constitute a substantial investment for David, ie. Unlike probability where if he just does this sort of thing 3 times, he’ll likely do well, David can only afford to make one major investment. Now, would David invest based on an educated guess? Would David do better to actually know something about what he was investing in? Undoubtedly, David would do far better to know what he was investing in and key points about it. Student Feedback While the primary reason behind testing is for feedback to teachers and such, students also get feedback from their test results. These results tell them how they did, what they knew/ didn’t, what they did wrong and how to fix it etc. Now, when a student gets back a test paper under the current system, if he’s interested in his results, he’ll likely look at the questions he got wrong, but not the ones he got right. However, since guesses would give the student extra correct questions, under the current system the student will be looking at less problems and faults in their knowledge – a student will not check correct answers vs. incorrect answers in all likelihood. This means that the student will not realise (and later perhaps improve on) their faults and not learn it to a sufficient degree. Conclusion These reasons are enough to provide strong grounds for a change of test scoring system. With this, I turn it over to Con.