Impact of Risk Taking Strategies on Male and Female EFL Learners’ Test Performance: The Case of Multiple Choice Questions

Abstract

This study scrutinized the interaction between gender and risk taking variables in test performance of Iranian EFL learners. The research was conducted on 120 male and female EFL learners from Islamic Azad university of Isfahan (khorasgan). The participants received a Venturesomeness subscale of Eysenck `s IVE questionnaire and were asked to rate each item on a 5point Likert-scale. The total score for this questionnaire ranges from 16 to 80. Students who were lower than 30 were considered as low risk-takers, those who were more than 70 as high risk-takers, and those between 30 and 70 as moderate risk-takers. In a weeks’ time, a complete TOEFL PBT test comprising 140- multiple-choice items as the second instrument was administrated. The results revealed that the female EFL students were lower risk takers and left questions unanswered more frequently and skipped questions a lot more than their male counterparts. Finally, it was found out that low risk takers answered the least number of questions in comparison to high and moderate risk takers, and consequently, had the most number of questions left unanswered which had a negative effect on test takers’ performance.