Pros and cons of Different kinds of Test Questions

It’s good to regularly review the advantages and disadvantages of the very most commonly used test questions additionally the test banks that now frequently provide them.

Multiple-choice questions

• Easy and quick to score, by hand or electronically
• Could be written so that they test a range that is wide of thinking skills
• Can cover lots of content areas on a single exam and still be answered in a class period
  

• Often test literacy skills: “if the student reads the question carefully, the answer is simple to recognize just because the student knows little in regards to the subject” (p. 194)
• Provide students that are unprepared possibility to guess, along with guesses which can be right, they get credit for things they don’t know
• Expose students to misinformation that will influence thinking that is subsequent the information
• Take some time and skill to make questions that are(especially good

True-false questions

• Easy and quick to score

• Regarded as “one of the very unreliable forms of assessment” (p. 195)
• Often written to ensure that a lot of the statement holds true save one small, often trivial bit of information that then helps make the statement that is whole
• Encourage guessing, and reward for correct guesses

Short-answer questions

• Easy and quick to grade
• Easy and quick to write

• Encourage students to memorize terms and details, to ensure that their knowledge of the content remains superficial

• Offer students an opportunity to demonstrate knowledge, skills, and abilities in many ways
• Enables you to develop student writing skills, especially the ability to formulate arguments supported with reasoning and evidence

• Require time that is extensive grade
• Encourage usage of subjective criteria when answers that are assessing
• If used in class, necessitate quick composition without time for planning or revision, which could end up in poor-quality writing

Questions given by test banks

• Save instructors the right hard work taking part in writing test questions
• Make use of the terms and methods which are used in the book

• Rarely ninjaessays 20% off involve analysis, synthesis, application, or evaluation (cross-discipline research documents that approximately 85 percent regarding the relevant questions in test banks test recall)
• Limit the scope of the exam to text content; if used extensively, may lead students to close out that the material covered in class is unimportant and irrelevant

We have a tendency to think that they are the only test question options, but there are several interesting variations. This article that promoted this review proposes one: begin with a question, and revise it until it may be answered with one word or a short phrase. Usually do not list any answer options for that question that is single but affix to the exam an alphabetized list of answers. Students select answers from that list. Some of the answers provided works extremely well over and over again, some is almost certainly not used, and there are many more answers listed than questions. It’s a version that is ratcheted-up of. The approach helps make the test more difficult and decreases the possibility of having an answer correct by guessing.

Remember, students do need to be introduced to virtually any new or altered question format before they encounter it on an exam.

Editor’s note: The list of benefits and drawbacks comes in part through the article referenced here. It also cites research evidence relevant to a few of these benefits and drawbacks.

Reference: McAllister, D., and Guidice, R.M. (2012). This can be only a test: A machine-graded improvement to your multiple-choice and examination that is true-false. Teaching in Higher Education, 17 (2), 193-207.

Reprinted from The Teaching Professor, 28.3 (2014): 8. © Magna Publications. All rights reserved.