Each generation of professors and students is heir to the academic folk wisdom of its predecessor. However, empirical evidence calls several tenets of this well-intentioned legacy into question. Specifically, data presented here suggest the following iconoclastic conclusions: placing a few easy questions at the beginning of a multiple-choice examination does not build student confidence; changing the first-chosen answer to a multiple-choice question can frequently be beneficial; printing multiple-choice examinations on paper of different colours (to discourage cheating) can be disadvantageous to students; choosing ‘c’ when in doubt about an answer is not an effective multiple-choice examination strategy; students sitting in front/middle seats do not always receive the highest marks; most students are not academically dishonest; humour on examinations enhances student performance; the highest grades are not achieved in morning classes; most students do not perform considerably better on multiple-choice than essay questions (or vice versa); and, students with unusual names do not typically earn poor grades. Consequently, caution is advisable in the acceptance of apparent academic truisms.
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