[jonny_noog]

There is also an urban myth about some entrance exam for Police/Army/Pilots etc where the instructions say read all the questions first. And the last question says, do not answer any questions just 'do some arbitrary thing' - to check wether you follow instructions properly.

I have actually experienced this kind of test. in my case, it was coupled with telling the test participants that they only have a short amount of time to complete the test, thus making it even more likely that the test participants would start answering questions immediately rather than following instructions to the letter.

Particularly when this extra time limit trick may be used, I'm not sure what value the test really had. Supposedly, even the police and armed forces are looking for people with initiative who can think creatively and not just mindless automatons who follow orders without question. This kind of test would not seem to align with that goal.

[rosser]

Being able to notice little details like that is completely orthogonal to an individual's relative initiative and creativity vs. automaton-hood. It's probably often enough that those very details you were "too rushed to notice" are the ones that could kill you in that kind of work.

[jonny_noog]

I see your point but thinking back on the situation as it was framed, it still seems to me that it was a direct test as to whether one will follow the procedure as it was stated or opt to stray from it. What conclusions could then be drawn from that are up for speculation I suppose.

Perhaps creativity vs. "automaton-hood" is not the dichotomy being tested and the value of the test really is more to do with following instructions when not doing so could kill you. But the sceptic/rebel in me wonders about those situations where following the instructions may well get you killed. I am not in the military or law enforcement and for better or worse, past experiences have taught me to be suspicious of both.

[DougBTX]

If you only have a short period of time, even better to skim through the test: to look for the easy questions to start with.

[wallflower]

The anxiety of one-off offset mistakes (e.g. filling in the Scantron incorrectly) aside, I think computer based testing makes it harder to do random access of questions during a test.