An exam question worthy of Socrates himself...

[lecter]

Went through a 6 hour, 3-exam ordeal today (had exam time conflict between 3 subjects and in their wisdom they made me take all 3 in one day). One of them was this crappy subject called "Management Information Systems".

In one of the multiple-choice questions, I was presented with the following logical dillema:

Q: Which of the following is not true?

A:

a) Regular boring bla bla statement
b) ditto
c) ditto
d) ALL OF THE ABOVE ARE TRUE

Now, the first three all seemed right to me...but if I select d), that would automatically mean that at least one of the above is wrong. If I select any of the first three as being not true, I automatically invalidate d) as well. Common sense made me think that the "not" part in the question was a typo, case in which d) would be the correct answer.

I'm still gonna raise a fuss about it though, I just happened to have a killer root-canal needing toothache today so paracetamol-fueled logical mind-twisters were NOT fun at 8AM.

[dZeus]

Multiple choice doesn't mean that only one answer can be correct, does it?

either way, D is a correct answer for the reasons you supplied.

[lecter]

Well in my university it's always been unique solution multiple-choice...

[Umfriend]

D is a right answer even if only one of A, B or C is NOT TRUE.

If A, B and C are TRUE, then the right answer is not supplied in the list.

[lecter]

Originally posted by Umfriend
D is a right answer even if only one of A, B or C is NOT TRUE.

I'm not quite following you... There is no "a" right answer, there should be only one correct answer.

[Umfriend]

OK, say A and C are true, but B is not true. Then B would be the right answer as it is the statement that is not true, right?

But if B is not true, than D is not true either. Same for A or C instead or along with B.

If A and B and C are all true, than D is true as well, but that was not asked for.

[ZokesPro]

I remember my Economics teacher in high school telling us that our final exam was goin to be multiple choice. We rejoiced, but was short lived when he told us there were gonna be 26 choices PER question! D'oh!

[lecter]

Originally posted by Umfriend
OK, say A and C are true, but B is not true. Then B would be the right answer as it is the statement that is not true, right?

But if B is not true, than D is not true either.

That's precisely my point, this should be a unique-solution multiple choice exam but this question would have two correct answers.

[Umfriend]

At least two, or none indeed. Give 'm hell, dude.

BTW, I misread your initial post indeed. You had it right and clear all along.