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Multiple Choice Test

Characteristics and Functions


Multiple -choice items can be used to measure knowledge outcome s and various types of
learni ng outcomes. They are most widely used for measuring knowledge, comprehension, and
application outcomes.

The multiple-choice item provides the most useful f ormat for m easuring ac hievem ent at var i
ous levels of learning. When selection - type item s are to be used (m ultiple-ch oice, true-false,
ma tching, check all that apply) an effective pro cedure is to start each item as a m ultiple-cho ice
item and switch to another item type only wh en the learning outcome and content m a ke it
desirable to do so. For eam ple, !") when there are only two possible alternatives, a s hift can be
ma de to a true-false item # and !$) when there are a number of similar factors to be related, a shift
can be m a de to a m a tching item .

%trengths&
". 'earning outcom es from sim ple to comple can be measured.
$. (ighly structured and clear tasks are provided.
). * broad sample of achieveme nt can be m easured.
+. ,ncorrect alternatives provide diagnostic information.
-. %cores are less influenced by guessing than true-f alse item s .
.. %cores are more reliable than su b/ectively scored item s !e.g., essays).
0. %coring is easy, ob/ective, and reliable.
1. ,tem analysis can rev eal how difficult each item was and how well it di sc rim i nated b e tween
the strong and weaker students in the class
2. 3erforma nce can be compared from class to class and year to year
"4. Can cover a lot of m a terial very efficiently !about one item per m i nute of testing time ).
"". ,tems can be written so that students must di scrimi nate among options that vary in degree of
correctness .
"$. *voids the absolute /udgme nt s found in True-False tests.

'im itations&
". Constructing good items is tim e consum ing.
$. ,t is fre5uently difficult to find plausible distractors.
). This item is ineffective for m easuring some types of problem solving and the ability to
organi6e and epress ideas.
+. 7eal-world problem solving differs 8 a differe nt process is involved in proposing a solution
versus se lecting a solu tion fr om a set of alterna tives.
-. %cores can be influenced by reading ability.
.. There is a lack of feedback on individual thought processes 8 it is difficult to determ ine why
individual students selected incorrect responses.
0. %tudents can some ti me s read more into the 5uestion than was intended.
1. 9ften focus on testing factual information and fails to test higher levels of cognitive thinking.
2.%ometimes there is more than one defensible :correct; answer.
"4. They place a high degree of dependence on the s tudent<s read ing ability and the ins t ru ctor<s
writing ability.
"". =oes not provide a measure of writing ability.
"$. May encourage guessing.
%tructure
Multiple choice items consist of a stem and a set of options. The stem is the beginning part of
the item that presents the item as a problem to be solved, a 5uestion asked of the respondent, or an
incomplete statement to be completed, as well as any other relevant information. The options are the
possible answers that the eaminer can choose from, with the correct answer called the key and the
incorrect answers called distractors.9nly one answer can be keyed as correct. This contrasts with
multiple response items in which more than one answer may be keyed as correct.
>sually, a correct answer earns a set number of points toward the total mark, and an incorrect
answer earns nothing. (owever, tests may also award partial credit for unanswered 5uestions or
penali6e students for incorrect answers, to discourage guessing. For eample, the removes a 5uarter
point from the test taker?s score for an incorrect answer.
For advanced items, such as an applied knowledge item, the stem can consist of multiple parts. The
stem can include etended or ancillary material such as a vignette, a case study, a graph, a table, or a
detailed description which has multiple elements to it. *nything may be included as long as it is
necessary to ensure the utmost validity and authenticity to the item. The stem ends with a lead-in
5uestion eplaining how the respondent must answer. ,n a medical multiple choice items, a lead-in
5uestion may ask @Ahat is the most likely diagnosisB@ or @Ahat pathogen is the most likely causeB@ in
reference to a case study that was previously presented.
Camples
Cample "

The stem of the or iginal item below fails to present the problem ade5uately or to set a frame of
reference for responding.

9riginal

". Aorld Aa r ,, was&

*. The result of the failure of the 'eague
of Dations.
E. (orrible.
C. Fought in C urope, *sia, and *frica.
=. Fought during the period of "2)2-"2+-.
7evised

". ,n which of these tim e period was Aorld
Aar ,, foughtB

*. "2"+-"2"0
E. "2$2-"2)+
C. "2)2-"2+-
=. "2-"-"2--
C. "2."-"2.2

Cample $

There should be no grammatical clues to the correct answer.

9riginal

". *lbert Cisenstein was a&

*. *nthropologist.
E. *stronomer.
C. Chemist.
=. Mathem atician
7evised

". Aho was *lbert CinsteinB

*. *n anthropologist.
E. *n *stronomer.
C. * chemist.
=. * ma thematician.

Cample )

*lternatives should not overlap !e.g., in the original form of this item , if e ither of the first two
alternatives is correct, :C; is also co rrect.)

9riginal

". =uring what age period is thum b-sucking
likely to produce the greatest psychological
traum a B

*. ,nfancy
E. 3reschool period
C. Eefore adolescence
=. =uring adolescence
C. *fter adoles cence
7evised

". =uring what age period is thum b-sucking
likely to produce the greatest psychological
traum a B

*. From birth to $ years old
E. From $ year s to - years old
C. From - year s to "$ years old
=. From "$ yea r s to $4 years old
C. $4 years of age or older

Cample +

Cample of how the greater similarity am ong alternatives increases the difficulty of the item.

Casy

". Aho was the 3resident of the >.%. during
the A a r of "1"$B

*. Frover Cleveland
E. *braham 'i ncoln
C. Game s Madison
=. (arry Truman
C. Feorge Aa s hington
More =iffi cult

". A ho was 3resident of the >.%. during the
Aar of "1"$B

*. Gohn H. *dam s
E. *ndrew Gackson
C. Thom as Gefferson
=. Game s Madison
C. Feorge Aa s hington
%coring
* simplistic view of guessing was employed in the original
development of formula scoring. ,t was assumed that an e-aminee either knew the answer to a
5uestion or guessed at
random among all of the choices. Aith +-choice items, about
" guess in + would be epected to succeed. This would result
in guessing one item correctly for every ) items guessed
wrong. To reduce the test score by the number of points e-pected to be gained through guessing, "
point would be sub-tracted for every ) items an eaminee guessed at but
answered incorrectly.
This reasoning led to the formula
F% I 7 - AJ!C - "),
in which
F% @corrected@ or formula score
7 number of items answered right
A number of items answered wrong
C number of choices per item !same for all items).
Ahen an eaminee omits a response, the item is considered
neither right nor wrong. To see how the formula works, con-sider an eaminee who answers $-
right and "$ wrong on
a -4-item, --choice test. ,n this case,
Dumber of items I -4
Dumber right I $-
Dumber wrong I "$
Dumber omitted I ")
Dumber of choices I -
F% $- - "$J!- - ") $$.
Dote that, because the items have five choices, the formula
assumes that this eaminee guessed blindly on "- items, get-ting ) right and "$ wrong. Therefore,
the eaminee ? s score
was reduced by ) points. The reader is now asked to com-pute the formula score for an eaminee
who answers "1 right
and . wrong on a +4-item, +-choice test&
Dumber of items I KK
Dumber right I KK
Dumber wrong I KK
Dumber omitted I KK
Dumber of choices I
F%
The result should have been F% I ".. Dow, suppose that a
completely ignorant eaminee guessed at random on all +4
items of the test in the last eample . This eaminee would
be epected to answer one fourth, or "4, of the +4 items cor-rectly !because there are + choices)
and )4 wrong. %hould
this happen, the resulting formula score would be&
F% I "4 - )4J!+ - ") I 9.
>sing the above formula re5uires that all items have the
same number of choices. Formula scoring can be applied,
however, even if the number of choices varies. To accomplish
this, each item on the test is assigned a score of " if the
answer is correct, L "J!C - ") if it is wrong, and 4 if it is omit-ted. These ad/usted scores for
each item are then summed
to obtain the formula score for the entire test. *d/usting each
eaminee?s score on every item was impractical before the
availability of computers. Conse5uently, in earlier times,
formula-scored tests were effectively limited to having the
same number of choices for all items. %ome individuals have
overgenerali6ed this constraint, incorrectly interpreting it to
mean that all multiple-choice items on a given test should have
the same number of items regardless of how the scores are
to be computed.
*dministrations
". %pecify ob/ectives or give study 5uestions
M %tudents should not be forced to gues s what will be on a tes t
M Five students specific study 5uestions or topics, then draw the test items from those
5uestions
M There should be ma ny study 5uestions that are com prehensive and cover all the important
ideas in the course

$. Try to reduce frustration for the creative student
M *void :all o f these,; :no ne of these,; and :both * and E; answer choices.

). =efeat the :test-wise; stra tegies of students who don<t study
M Ee aware of the gene ral : r ules of thu mb; that students use to guess on m u ltip le cho i ce
eams and try to avoid them
a. 3ick the longest answ er
o ma ke sure the longest answer is only correct a part of the tim e
o try to ma ke options e5ual length
b. Ahen in doubt pick :c;
o ma ke sure the correct an swer choice letter varies
c. Dever pick an answer which uses the word Nalways< or Nne ver< in it
o ma ke sure this option is correct part of the time or avoid using always and never
in the op tion choices
d. ,f there are two answ ers which epress oppos ites, pick one or the other and ignore other
alternatives
o som e ti me s offer opposites when neither is correct or offer two pairs of opposites
e. ,f in doubt, guess
o use five alternatives instead of three or four to reduce guessing
f. 3ick the scientific-sounding answer
o use scientific sounding /argon in wrong answers
g. =on<t pick an answer which is too sim ple or obvious
o som e ti me s m a ke the simple, obvious answer the correct one
h. 3ick a word which you reme mbe r was related to the topic
o when creating the distractors use terminology fr om the sam e area of the tet as the
right answer, but in distr actors use those words incorrectly so the wrong answers
are definitely wrong

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