<p>I wouldn’t advocate eliminating the guessing penalty, but I would change the way the quarter-point penalties are rounded. I don’t have a problem with losing .25 points for an incorrect answer, but I do have a problem with a -2 immediately becoming a -4 when you miss one more question. Take this month’s CR curve as an example: missing one took no points off your score, missing two took ten points off your score, and getting three wrong took fifty points off your score. There’s something wrong with that picture.</p>
<p>Obviously, it’d be difficult (i.e. impossible) to work out a system where scores still came out in multiples of ten if every quarter-point were factored in. But I think there’s something unfair going on when the difference between 2 wrong and 3 wrong is so great. Perhaps CB could come up with a system where half-points were factored in so that scores didn’t have to be rounded so much.</p>