Quote:
Originally posted by Dan_ref
Nevada, I don't want this to turn into a staring contest but realistically speaking shouldn't we be encouraged to take a stab (guess?) at the right answer? After all, how often do we get to declare a do-over because we're not sure?
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While I hear your point Dan, but I believe that the goal of a written exam is different.
IMO the written exam should help an official to determine exactly what and how much he knows and doesn't know.
Rules study is all preparation, and there is no need to guess during preparation.
My experience is that if someone randomly guesses on a bunch of questions, that person usually does not make the effort to go back and learn anything from the questions that he happened to get correct. This is not constructive.
Part of the problem lies with the local associations. Some don't treat the exam as a learning opportunity and a teaching tool.
A few organizations don't allow their officials to keep a copy of the questions after taking the test. Some don't even tell the officials which questions they missed; just their final score is given.
With my idea, it would be much clearer to the official that he doesn't know something (those he had to leave blank). That alone is worth the hassle of taking the exam.
I think that there is a big difference in seeing your exam score be a 60 as opposed to an 80 with the same amount of knowledge. Perhaps this will shock some people and motivate them to study the rules more.
Heck, maybe there is also some parallel between not guessing on the exam and the "if you're not sure, don't call it" philosophy on the court.