Assessment of Answer-Changing Behavior of Nursing Students and Faculty Recommendations.

Background: Existing literature identifies a general positive benefit to students' examination scores when students change their answer on examinations. Current shifts toward computerized examinations and in test anxiety warrant a literature update on test-taking behaviors.

Purpose: This study assessed answer changing on multiple-choice examinations and investigated faculty recommendations related to answer changing.

Method: This study used a mixed-methods design using retrospective student data from ExamSoft reports and faculty responses from a national survey of nurse educators.

Results: Findings indicated 55% of students improved their examination score, with an average improvement of 3%, and 24% of students lowered their examination score. However, faculty continue to incorrectly recommend that students should not change answers on examinations.

Conclusion: The results of this study support prior literature that answer changing benefits students. However, data are lacking on the characteristics of students who improve or lower their examination scores by changing answers..