What I can reflect about psychological aspect if the student is confronted with the following questions:

Ali has some of pencils and spidols. The amount of Ali’s pencils and spidols are 16. If the prices of all of those things are Rp50.000, 00, so linear equation system that deals with the condition is

x + y = 16 x + y = 16 2x + y = 7 2x + y = 7

A. {ax + by = 50.000 B. {x + y = 50.000 C. {4x + 2y = 10 D. {4x + 2y = 10

The problems of linear equation system in mathematics subject are come up from the matter of daily life. If the student faced by this question, there are some psychological aspect that will be discussed here.

1. Student can imagine this question as the representative of their daily life problem.

Pencils and spidols are the usual things that often uses by students. The amount and the price of those things also can be thought by them. Then, they can make a mathematics sentence by this condition by sampling those things in some variables. Student can name the amount of pencils as “x” and spidols as “y”. And then, the price of pencils called “a” and spidols called “b”. So that suitable answer for the question is A that is,

x + y = 16

A. {ax + by = 50.000

2. The format of the question is Multiple Choices will influence the student’s answers.

Before discuss the effect of multiple choices for the students, let firstly we learn about the meaning of multiple choices.

Multiple choices are a form of assessment in which respondents are asked to select one or more choices from a list. Multiple choice items consist of a stem and a set of options. The stem is the beginning part of the item that presents the item as a problem to be solved, a question asked of the respondent, or an incomplete statement to be completed, as well as any other relevant information. The options are the possible answers that the examinee can choose from, with the correct answer called the key and the incorrect answers called destructors. (Taken from wikipedia)

The question is in form of multiple choice tests where the stem is the information about Ali’s pencils and spidols, the amount and the prices of them. Then the problem should be solved by the students is to make a linear equation system that deals with the condition. While the options are some answers consists of 4 choices that is A,B,C and D. Only one choice gives best answer of the question.

The multiple choice form of the question has some advantages such as

1. Student’s answer can be recalled by the options.
2. In the larger numbers of the students, it will be an effective technique to do assessment of student’s ability. Because it takes less time to correct or evaluate the wrong and the true answers.
3. Multiple choice questions lend the teachers to the development of objective assessment items; however, without teacher training, questions can be subjective in nature. Because this style of test does not require a teacher to interpret answers, students are graded purely on their selections.

Beside the advantages, multiple choice format tests also give bad impact to the student. There are several disadvantages of multiple choice format tests that are:

1. The teacher couldn’t measure the true student’s mathematics ability.

It is because of some students answer the question only by “guessing”. The term "multiple guess" has been used to describe this scenario because the students may attempt to guess rather than determine the correct answer.

2. Students are used to think instantly.

It happens because multiple choices is oriented in the result, not in the mathematical process. Students only think about how to select the best answers that fulfill the question. Sometimes they think backwardly, by substituting the options to the question and then chose the option that fulfills the question correctly.

3. A student who is incapable of answering a particular question can simply select a random answer and still have a chance of receiving a mark for it. So the multiple choice test becomes a fortunate or unfortunate moment.

4. By multiple choices, students can make a gambling by changing the first answer. Changing from "right to wrong" may be more painful and memorable, but is probably a good idea to change an answer after additional reflection indicates that a better choice could be made.

3. Why the linear equation system always uses variable “x” and “y”?

Unconsciously, everything on mathematics always labeled with the symbols “x” and “y”. If it is evaluated from psychology aspect, it will construct public (student) opinion that only symbols “x” and “y” as a label or remark used in mathematics. Why don’t we use other symbols such as p, q, m, n, k, l etc.? Using of other symbol will change the perspective of student in learning mathematics. Even for the students that learn mathematics firstly, it will be more interesting to use symbols such as picture, unique form (in the case of Ali’s problem, it can use picture of pencil and spidols.