Monkeys Take the IELTS

[Zoltan Bertok]

What most students don’t realize is that to insure that 20-25% chance, you have to guess randomly. If you put 20 monkeys in a room to take the IELTS, assuming they answered once per question and behaved themselves, on average they would get 20-25% of the questions correct on a five choice multiple choice problem. Put 20 students in the room, and the average will be much lower among guessed questions. Why?

http://www.ielts-exam.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=65&Itemid=35

[Sheelagh Blanckenberg]

Why would the average be much lower among guessed questions if you put 20 students in the room?

Maybe I am having a blonde moment but you will have to answer this Zoltan.

Totally stumped!

Sheelagh

[Solly Listor]

I am stumped to. What is the answer?

[Susan Wareham McGrath]

Zoltan, would the monkeys be writing with pencils, or using a keyboard? And would their spellcheck be enabled if they had keyboards?

[Zoltan Bertok]

IELTS intentionally writes deceptive answer choices that 'look' right. A student has no idea about a question, so picks the “best looking” answer, which is often wrong. The monkey has no idea what looks good and what doesn’t, so will consistently be lucky about 20-25% of the time.

I do not know nothing about the keyboard skills of the monkeys.