= 27d567bc2d48d9f40e9ccc20ea370b15)
Vladimir_Nesov comments on Shut Up And Guess - Less Wrong
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
= 783df68a0f980790206b9ea87794c5b6)
Loading…= b715d02e85f7b3b4ae65ca3d3e450868)
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Powered by Reddit
= f037147d6e6c911a85753b9abdedda8d)
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (105)
The same expected test score doesn't imply the same expected utility.
Hmm. And why is the parent comment downvoted? It's incorrect to obviously agree with a sweeping assertion that the "result" is the same if expected score is the same. The expected utility of the outcome is going to be strictly higher or lower from following one of these strategies, it's not going to be the same.
Presumably, as long as you're not equivocating on 'expected', that isn't true. For tests, 'test score'=='utility', no?
For an exam where what matters is your grade relative to other test-takers, like the SAT, probably yes, but on an exam with a hard pass/fail threshold, the utility function is discontinuous (and therefore non-linear) around the threshold, so guessing might make a difference.
Ah, good point. I always forget 'get the highest score possible' isn't everyone's goal; presumably, some people would prefer 70% and 100% about equally in this case.
It is about the 'expected' part. The average of utilities for each score does not have to equal the utility of the average score. It is only equal when utility scales linearly with score.