“When in doubt, pick C.” It is the most durable piece of multiple-choice folklore there is, and every real estate candidate has heard it. We have 18,924 answer keys sitting in a database, so rather than argue about it we counted.
18,924
Answer keys counted
A — 25%
Most common key
D — 25%
Least common key
0 pts
Spread between them
Key findings
- The folklore doesn't survive the count. Across 18,924 questions the gap between the most common key (A, 25%) and the least (D, 25%) is 0 percentage points — close enough to even that always-picking A buys you a fraction of one question across a whole portion.
- A balanced key distribution has to be checked for, not assumed. Item writers drift — usually toward the middle keys, because a correct answer feels natural to bury and a first or last option feels like a giveaway. We audit ours against this distribution, and this study only publishes while it passes.
- The guessing strategy that does pay is elimination.Removing one option takes a blind guess from 25% to 33%; removing two takes it to 50%. Over the handful of items you genuinely don't know, that is worth real marks — an order of magnitude more than any letter-picking rule.
The distribution
Computed across all 18,924released questions in the AgentExamCoach bank. This describes our bank; the live exam's key distribution is not published by any testing vendor.
What to do instead
Guess every question — there is no penalty for a wrong answer on any state exam we serve, so a blank is a guaranteed zero where a guess is at worst a likely one. Eliminate before you guess. And flag rather than agonise: two minutes lost to one question is two questions you rush at the end.
The letter you fall back on genuinely does not matter. Pick one and stop thinking about it.