Multiple Choice Tests
by An article on the fairness of multiple choice tests.
Multiple-Choice Tests: Are They Fair Enough?
According to the article “Multiple-Choice Tests” posted in www.Fairtest.org, multiple-choice tests greatly affect education today. The article focuses on questions such as: Are multiple-choice tests objective? What can multiple-choice items be used for? Multiple-choice a nd critical thinking, and Should multiple-choice tests be used at all?, just to name a few. Fairtest states that a test “usually has dozens of question or items. For each question, the test-taker is supposed to select the “best” choice among a set of four or five options.”
Many standardized tests today, including State exams are of the Multiple-choice type. Test-makers’ argue that multiple choice exams are in fact objective and impartial, due to the fact that humans do not score the tests. The scoring is usually done by machine. Yet the article does point out that even though scoring takes place through a machine, humans do participate in the decisions necessary to formulate which questions to include in a test, how to phrase the question, as well as what kind of “distractors” to use. The distractors are the options available to the students taking these types of exams, next to the correct answer.
Furthermore, the lack of further explanations in the answers, on the part of the students, lead us to think on the high possibility of sheer guessing as a flawed solving technique . Therefore, Multiple-choice tests are, in this regards, subjective enough to consider the risk of bias towards students.
We are aware that multiple-choice tests indeed measure the knowledge that a child may have on basic facts and figures. Yet I agree, with the author of the aforementioned article, that when it comes to “non-routine problems, analyzing, interpreting, and making mathematical arguments, multiple-choice questions are not useful”. An important fact I learned in my recent inquiries on the subject, is that an effective assessment requires feedback from/to students in order to emphasize the strengths and weaknesses to be corrected. This is one factor that multiple choice tests lack. Even though these type of tests measure basic, succinct and almost telegraphic knowledge, they do not give a proper and immediate feedback from/to the students about their weaknesses, which I consider is crucial in helping the child understand the subject they are being tested for.
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Post CommentCHAN LEE PENG
On September 2, 2009 at 9:53 pm
Great piece. Multiple choice questions are too objective to test the student’s ability, we may need some subjective questions too. Have my liked it.
giftarist
On September 2, 2009 at 11:47 pm
Interesting..
ken bultman
On September 3, 2009 at 3:58 am
I loved them. I simply eliminated the answers that could not possibly be right thus leaving me with the correct answer. Multiple choice tests are a poor method of determining a student’s grasp of a subject.
Ruby Hawk
On September 3, 2009 at 9:49 pm
I agree with Ken, I love multiple choice tests, It might not be the best for students because they are too easy.
Ruby Hawk
On September 6, 2009 at 10:58 pm
another I like,
Jane Jane
On September 8, 2009 at 9:36 am
whenever taking multiple choice, my classmate says that a good guesser never fails. what do you think?..=)
Nikita K
On September 12, 2009 at 6:06 am
Multiple choice questions aren’t easy all the time because when you have many similar answers at once, they can muddle you up. As a student who did multiple choice tests, I did exceptionally well in them but I think that is the point of them to help a student recognise what answer might be right or wrong. Nevertheless, thought filled article.
LoveDoctor
On September 14, 2009 at 9:33 pm
I always preferred multiple choice questions and found them a lot easier. However, you do bring up good points: The fact that the tests are scored by a machine. Let’s take the LSAT exam: The test makers use all kinds of dis tractors in order to confuse the students when selecting the right choice. Sometimes there is a very close second best answer if you ask me. So how do we know that the score that you are getting is your best score? You can always get your test hand score and see if the score changes. I find that if you eliminate the wrong answers first you have a better possibility of doing well on multiple choice types of exams.