Skew of answer choices toward D or E in harder questions?

davidchen351

Lately, anecdotal evidence has me thinking that the LSAT skews more toward the later answer choices (D and E) in what seem to be harder questions. I wonder if anyone has run some simple statistical analysis on this, and this would seem to be the site that does it.

Here's a few research questions that might yield interesting results (or not):
-For LR, taking the last 10 questions of all sections that have been released and taking a look at the distribution of correct answer choices. Is there a skew toward D or E?

-For RC, take the last 2 questions of each passage that has been released and look at the distribution of correct answer choices. Is there a skew toward D or E?

-For both of the above. Instead of just looking at the distribution, one thing I have noticed is that on many of the more difficult questions, LSAC tends to insert a misleading answer toward the beginning while the correct answer is at the end. This tactic exploits a psychological tendency that people have called "priming" where a given stimulus (like a tempting but wrong answer choice) shapes the way a test taker views later information. So for all questions in which more than 15% of test takers wrongly chose A or B, what is the distribution of correct answer choices? Is there a skew toward D or E?

The last research question is especially helpful because it provides a vital piece of information when you've narrowed down answer choices toward the end. It's a more pointed way at educated guessing than blinding picking D or E. I'd love to hear what people find, if anything.