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.

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

約75%大學生認為更改選擇題中自己最先認定的答案會降低他們的考試分數(shù)。在一項調(diào)查中，也有55%的老師同意這種觀點，只有16%的老師認為更改自己最初認定的選項會提高考試分數(shù)。

但是這種想法是錯的。

70多年里的33項研究顯示，一般來說，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，沒有哪項結(jié)果顯示修改選擇題答案會降低考試分數(shù)。

一項接一項的研究表明，在做選擇題時，把答案改對的情況比把答案改錯的情況要多。所以堅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做選擇題時應該堅持自己最初選的那個答案呢？部分原因是：本來選對了后來卻改錯了的痛苦程度相較于不改答案而做錯題來說要大多了。

所以我們會把改錯答案的事情記得更清楚。于是在糾結(jié)要不要改答案的時候這種痛苦之情就會出現(xiàn)，讓我們覺得堅持最初的選項是對的。