Clarification on how to answer when there are two correct

[semb]

Hi, I'd appreciate guidance on what to do in the exam when a question appears to have two correct answers.

My DD was completing Susan Daughtrey Practice Type 5 in her VR Further Practice Exercises book (find the four letter
word hidden between words in a sentence)

For the sentence "Ban eating bread!" she wrote "Bane", but then also noticed "neat".

"Neat" was the target word, but both are correct.

If this were to happen in the exam, how should she choose which word to write down?
Is it always the simpler word like neat, or is it more likely to be the harder word like bane so it's testing vocab too?
Or is this just an error in the practice exercises and unlikely to happen in the real thing?!

Advice much appreciated

[Reading Mum]

there should never be 2 right answers in a real exam

[Okanagan]

there should never be 2 right answers in a real exam

But if it did happen I'd always go for the more obvious answer as it's more likely to be the one the question writer was building the phrase around. I'd not spend a lot of time focussing on dealing with the situation, or trying to look for a second word once you've found one though.

[semb]

Thanks Reading Mum and Okanagan

Hopefully, as you say Reading Mum it wouldn't happen. I guess the worry is that if she'd stopped looking as soon as she found bane she'd have missed the target word neat as it comes later in the sentence. But as you say, you wouldn't want to spend a lot of time checking for other words.

Thanks again for your time

[fatbananas]

As I understand it, 'Bane' as it would be in this eg has a capital letter, and as it is not a proper noun, and as one would not normally find that word at the beginning of a sentence, it would not be the correct answer.

But I'm a novice in these things, so someone else might have a more experienced answer.

[mystery]

It's this kind of error in question setting that makes me worry about papers being hastily put together for the real 11plus exam - it can put the "cleverer" child at a disadvantage. Most children would find neat as bane is probably not in their vocabulary; your daughter with the better vocabulary found bane first of all. If the examiner did not allow for this because it never crossed their minds either then your daughter would get no mark for this question and the others would get it right.

I find this also sometimes with ambiguously worded questions where there is another meaning from the one the examiner intended. The majority of people only see one meaning. I see two meanings and it means that I take a little more time over the question than the person who can only see one meaning. This is why questions should be rigorously tested. I fear that in the bid for "tutor-proof, practice-proof" questions we seem to be in at the moment there will be more junk questions in the real exams, and marking which does not allow for this.

Maybe I'm just feeling very negative!

[BusyMumThree]

Did the question paper come with a multiple choice answer sheet...if so then usually the format would be to select the two words where the hidden word is and therefore selecting
"Ban eating" as your answer would be correct regardless of which word she is identifying...hope that makes sense...

[semb]

mystery - I know what you mean - this is my worry too

busymumthree - unfortunately it's standard format not multiple choice - a really interesting point though!

thanks for your input
semb

[willow_catkin]

I have noticed this a couple of times and it seems to me that you do not use the whole part of the first word so Ban e is not accepted. We had the same issue where the m-eat was incorrect. HTH