In the fourth question that was a practice of the first three questions, the students were asked the question “If the
distance between the Earth and the Sun would remain the same throughout the year, how would this affect the
seasons?” 50.1% of the students gave the wrong answer that “there would be no seasons” if the distance between
the Earth and the Sun remained the same throughout the year. This thought is in parallel with the thought that
“the Earth is closer to the Sun in summer” which greatly caused the students to give the wrong answer in the first
question. In this question, only 10.6% of the students gave the correct answer “the seasons would be as they are
today”. Eighth graders who were more successful than others in the first three questions could not show the same
level of success in this question.