• technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    2 hours ago

    If you’re choosing the answer, then there is 100% chance of being correct. Since none of these answers is 100%, the chance is 0%.

  • Tiger666@lemmy.ca
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    3 hours ago

    Thanks for making me laugh all alone in my car before heading in to work. I wish I could give you an award. Cheers!

  • Phantastick@lemm.ee
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    14 hours ago

    This is a conundrum wrapped in a turducken, swaddled in nesting dolls.

  • seeigel@feddit.org
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    12 hours ago

    What’s the correct value if the answer is not picked at random but the test takers can choose freely?

  • xthexder@l.sw0.com
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    16 hours ago

    It’s probably graded by a computer, and a) or d) is a fake answer, since the automated system doesn’t support multiple right answers.

    I’m going to go with 25% chance if picking random, and a 50% chance if picking between a) and d).
    If it’s graded by a human, the correct answer is f) + u)

  • nialv7@lemmy.world
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    19 hours ago

    The question is malformed and the correct answer isn’t listed in the multiple choices. Therefore the correct answer is 0%

    • zkfcfbzr@lemmy.world
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      10 hours ago

      It is 33% if the answer itself is randomly chosen from 25%, 50%, and 60%. Then you have:

      If the answer is 25%: A 1/2 chance of guessing right

      If the answer is 50%: A 1/4 chance of guessing right

      If the answer is 60%: A 1/4 chance of guessing right

      And 1/3*1/2 + 1/3*1/4 + 1/3*1/4 = 1/3, or 33.333…% chance

      If the answer is randomly chosen from A, B, C, and D (With A or D being picked meaning D or A are also good, so 25% has a 50% chance of being the answer) then your probability of being right changes to 37.5%.

      This would hold up if the question were less purposely obtuse, like asking “What would be the probability of answering the following question correctly if guessing from A, B, C and D randomly, if its answer were also chosen from A, B, C and D at random?”, with the choices being something like “A: A or D, B: B, C: C, D: A or D”

  • moakley@lemmy.world
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    24 hours ago

    B.

    This is a multiple choice test. Once you eliminate three answers, you pick the fourth answer and move on to the next question. It can’t be A, C, or D, for reasons that I understand. There’s a non-zero chance that it’s B for a reason that I don’t understand.

    If there is no correct answer, then there’s no point hemming and hawing about it.

    B. Final answer.

    • lugal@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      22 hours ago

      I love this, it shows how being good at (multiple choice) tests doesn’t mean you’re good at the topic. I’m not good at tests because my country’s education system priorities understanding and problem solving. That’s why we fail at PISA

    • blandfordforever@lemm.ee
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      17 hours ago

      Entertaining response but I disagree.

      I’m going to say that unless you’re allowed to select more than one answer, the correct answer is 25%. That’s either a or d.

      By doing something other than guessing randomly (seeing that 1 in 4 is 25% and that this answer appears twice), you now have a 50% chance of getting the answer correct. However, that doesn’t change the premise that 1 in 4 answers is correct. It’s still 25%, a or d.

      • moakley@lemmy.world
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        12 hours ago

        That’s an interesting perspective. The odds of correctly guessing any multiple choice question with four answers should be 25%. But that assumes no duplicate answers, so I still say that’s wrong.

        • blandfordforever@lemm.ee
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          11 hours ago

          I’m going to double down and say that on a real life test, this would likely represent a typo. In such case, I think you could successfully defend a 25% answer while a 60% answer is just right out the window, straight to jail.

        • the_q@lemm.ee
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          21 hours ago

          No of course not, but the question is more important to the answer than the “correct” answer.

              • CileTheSane@lemmy.ca
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                11 hours ago

                It’s not a puzzle. It’s just wrong.

                “Which of the following is a mammal:
                A) rock
                B) time
                C) verb
                D) Enui”

                Is not a puzzle.

                • Kage520@lemmy.world
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                  1 hour ago

                  Based on previous guy’s logic: D.

                  I know A, B, and C are definitely wrong, but I’m not sure I fully understand D. So it’s D and move on.

                  Reality is I make a note and discuss with the teacher if they don’t notice themselves when tests come back.

  • Reddfugee42@lemmy.world
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    23 hours ago

    This is a self-referential paradox — a classic logic puzzle designed to be tricky. Let’s break it down:

    Step-by-step analysis:

    1. How many choices? There are 4 possible answers, so if we pick one randomly, the chance of picking any specific one is 1 in 4 = 25%.

    2. How many answers say “25%”? Two.

    3. That means the probability of randomly choosing an answer that says “25%” is 2 in 4 = 50%.

    4. But if the correct answer is 50%, then only one option says “50%” — which is ©. So the probability of picking it at random is 1 in 4 = 25%, contradicting the idea that 50% is correct.

    5. If the correct answer is 25%, then two options say that — a and d. So the chance of picking one of those at random is 50%, not 25% — again a contradiction.

    6. Similarly, if 60% is correct (only one option), then the chance of picking it randomly is 25%, which again makes it incorrect.

    Conclusion: Any choice leads to a contradiction. This is a self-referential paradox, meaning the question breaks logical consistency. There is no consistent correct answer.

  • cholesterol@lemmy.world
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    16 hours ago

    Paradoxes aside, if you’re given multiple choices without the guarantee that any of them are correct, you can’t assign a chance of picking the right one at random anyway.

  • user86223091@lemm.ee
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    22 hours ago

    It’s 0%, because 0% isn’t on the list and therefore you have no chance of picking it. It’s the only answer consistent with itself. All other chances cause a kind of paradox-loop.

    • rational_lib@lemmy.world
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      13 hours ago

      I agree with 0% but disagree there’s any paradox - every choice is just plain old wrong. Each choice cannot be correct because no percentage reflects the chance of picking that number.

      Ordinarily we’d assume the chance is 25% because in most tests there’s only one right choice. But this one evidently could have more than one right choice, if the choice stated twice was correct - which it isn’t. So there’s no basis for supposing that 25% is correct here, which causes the whole paradox to unravel.

      Now replace 60% with 0%. Maybe that would count as a proper paradox. But I’d still say not really, the answer is 0% - it’s just wrong in the hypothetical situation posed by the question rather than the actual question.

    • NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de
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      22 hours ago

      Correct - even if you include the (necessary) option of making up your own answer. If you pick a percentage at random, you have a 0% chance of picking 0%.