An open letter to all teachers and professors-

When you give out a multiple-choice test, please refrain from making more than 3 answers in a row the same letter.

Seeing five A's circled in a row is suspect and leaves me second guessing the information I have studied for the past two weeks. Just yesterday, I had five A's in a row and changed the last one to a B because in my head I thought "there's no way that I have 5 A's in a row, that just can't be right."

It was right. The last answer was A and two points were taken off of my grade which would have been an A had I not overthought the repetition of circling the first letter in the alphabet.

I go into tests knowing that teacher's do not intentionally place questions that have the same correct letter choice in a row, yet when I notice the ratio of D's to B's is off, even if I know the answer is not D, I'll often pick it simply because I haven't circled one in a while.

You have an answer key to the test. There is a lot of stress on students, college students especially, to do well. Often, your test is not the only one we're preparing for that week. Please take a minute out of your busy one-lecture day to go through the answer key. If you recognize that there are more than 3 A's, B's, C's, or D's in a row, mix it up a little. A little copying and pasting here and there, and boom, 2 A's, a C and a B- not suspicious at all, completely normal. It would save us a lot of added worry during tests, AND it would save YOU a ton of emails at the end of the semester asking to round up grades.

I am not a bad test taker, I generally stick with my gut, and I study more than the average person. But the second I see four B's in a row, every ounce of knowledge I learned in the course goes out the window and instantly I find myself trying to do statistics in a class that doesn't involve an ounce of math. I start sweating, looking around if anyone else is panicking, and now this one Scantron test has turned into a life or death situation.

Do I switch the 2^nd B in a row to a different letter? Do I change the last one? Wait, what if they are all B? No, there is no WAY that I have 6 B's in a row!

I get my test back, see 4 red marks in a row, with the letter B printed in red ink aside my eraser marks in the "B" circle. And now I am beating myself up for the next week because I knew the information but couldn't show it on the test and now I have to get a 100% on the next test to get my grade up from the B- that this 100-point multiple choice test dropped my grade to. Oh, and Professor, you WILL be hearing from me.

To every teacher everywhere: do every student the favor of going through the test first and changing a few answer choices around so there's not 10 D's in a row.

Sincerely,

A student who deserves 10 points back on every multiple-choice test due to the fact that 7 A's in a row on a true/false exam is cruel.