Test-taking technology has come a long way over the years, from blue books and #2 pencils to digital, computer-adaptive assessments like MAP® Growth™. This evolution has enabled precise insights into student achievement and growth, but there’s a catch: the utility and validity of assessment data are only as good as the engagement and attention that students bring to the test.
That’s why test administrators should always be looking for “tells” that indicate possible disengagement. Rapid guessing, which happens when students zip through tests and choose answers without fully reading or comprehending the questions, is one of the most revealing tells available to us.
Fortunately, rapid guessing is a problem that has solutions. The key is to effectively monitor test-taking behaviors, intervene with students as needed during their tests to get them on the right track toward providing a reliable score, and ensure that tests marred by rapid guessing aren’t used to inform instructional decisions or interventions that don’t meet students’ actual learning needs.
Here are five things to know about the age-old problem of rapid guessing and how MAP Growth was expertly designed to detect and mitigate it.
1. Rapid guessing produces faulty data that leads teachers astray
When students rush through test questions without reading them carefully, the validity and usefulness of the assessment decrease with each answer that doesn’t accurately reflect what the students really know. And of course, that’s true even if they get lucky and choose the right answer. Consequences of this behavior include:
- Deflated scores. Rapid guessing tends to bring down a student’s test score and can even result in the appearance of negative growth over time. To quantify this effect, MAP Growth reports include an “estimated impact of student disengagement,” which shows how different a student’s RIT score could have been if the student had been fully engaged during the test.
- Inappropriate interventions. When students’ assessment scores don’t reflect their true abilities, they’re likely to receive interventions that don’t match their learning needs. This could even include being pulled out of class and into special groups, which could be counterproductive for students whose needs have been misidentified.
- Instructional decisions based on faulty data. To develop effective lesson plans, teachers need assessment data they can trust. Test scores skewed by rapid guessing can undermine this trust.
- A misleading picture of academic growth over time. Interim assessments like MAP Growth are all about capturing snapshots of knowledge and skill and plotting those data points on a trend line that shows how students are developing over time. Rapid guessing throws a wrench into this process by producing inaccurate snapshots.
2. MAP Growth detects rapid guessing in real time
Let’s take a step back for a minute. What exactly qualifies as a rapid guess? It depends on the question. For every test item in MAP Growth, NWEA tracks an average response time based on its vast repository of completed tests. If a student’s response time comes in well below the average for that particular question, the answer is flagged as being a rapid guess.
But it’s a pattern of disengagement, and not just a random quickly answered question here and there, that indicates the presence of a problem that needs to be addressed. A student is considered disengaged when they answer three successive questions with rapid guesses.
MAP Growth provides real-time detection and mitigation of rapid guessing in several ways:
- An auto-pause feature stops the test when a rapid-guessing pattern is detected
- A friendly “Slow Down Sloth” character appears on students’ screens to remind them to take their time
- The proctor receives an alert when a student’s rapid guessing indicates disengagement
3. Proctors can nip rapid guessing in the bud
While MAP Growth is designed to watch for possible disengagement and offer gentle correctives, there’s no substitute for human interaction. That’s why proctors receive alerts when rapid guessing occurs and are prompted to step in while students still have time to change course.
When a student is moving fast enough through MAP Growth to trigger a rapid-guessing alert, NWEA recommends that the proctor approach the student, pause their test, and engage them in a low-pressure conversation about what’s going on. Students might be rushing through the test for any number of personal reasons, including confusion and anxiety. Proctors can take this opportunity to see what’s going on for the student and address the issue sensitively before encouraging them to resume the test. Remember, the goal is to help students understand the importance of assessment, not to pressure them.
4. Rapid-guessing data is included in several reports
To make rapid-guessing metrics as accessible and useful as possible, NWEA includes this data in a number of reports:
- Student Profile report: Shows percentage of disengagement and the estimated impact to RIT, both in the Subject tab and the Growth Over Time module
- Class Profile report: Shows under the Rapid Guessing Percentage column after choosing a class and viewing the Test Details tab
- Comprehensive Data file: In the assessment file, shows percentage of disengagement in column AC
- Combined Data file: Shows percentage of disengagement in column AJ
5. Rapid guessing data helps drive insight and action
Understanding rapid guessing helps ensure that MAP Growth provides actionable data to educators and school leaders. With rapid guessing data in hand, you can examine this challenging issue through the lens of grade level, testing season, personnel (test administrators), and other relevant factors. The insights you gain can inform future testing conditions and proctor training.
Finally, to ensure the validity of MAP Growth scores, NWEA recommends that students who rapidly guess on at least 30% of questions be retested. Retesting may sound like a chore, but it’s a key opportunity to give students the chance to show what they really know—and thus to make sure that every student gets the instruction and interventions they need for their continued learning and growth.
