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These tests have other questions that intersect and determine how much you actually mean it by taking it from different angles. The MMPI-2 for example, may touch on the same subject from various degrees and angles to get the overall picture.

Not saying it's right, but not saying it's a singular question "do you believe X agree? slightly agree? etc." it's a bit more deep and nuanced than that. And the statistics tend to back it up.

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You are right, they do this, especially in the more tedious longer ones.

I think improving these things is difficult, because of you change the questions, you also loose all the accumulated data, and maybe now you might have a better questionnaire, but you wouldn't know it, and you wouldn't know what the results mean. I mean, until you administer it to just as many people as the old one. It's a lot of work.

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