Multiple choice

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For the 1974 John Wayne crime drama movie, see McQ.

Multiple choice items are a form of assessment item for which respondents are asked to select one or more of the choices from a list. This type of item is used in education testing, in elections (choose between multiple candidates, parties, or policies), in market research, and many other areas.

Frederick J. Kelly is credited with creating multiple choice items in 1914 at the University of Kansas. One of the first uses of multiple choice questions was to assess the capabilities of World War I military recruits. Test writers are often trained in Bloom's taxonomy.

While often colloquially referred to as "questions," this is a misnomer because many items are not phrased as a question. They can be presented as incomplete statements or mathematical equations.

Contents

[edit] Structure

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 question 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 examinee can choose from, with the correct answer called the key and the incorrect answers called distractors.[1]

For advanced items, such as an applied knowledge item, the stem can consist of multiple parts. The stem can include extended or ancillary material such as a vignette, a case study, a graph, a table, or a detailed description which has multiple elements to it. Anything may be included as long it is necessary to ensure the utmost validity and authenticity to the item. The stem ends with a lead-in question explaining how the respondent must answer. In a medical multiple-choice items, a lead-in question may ask "What is the most likely diagnosis?" or "What pathogen is the most likely cause?" in reference to a case study that was previously presented.

[edit] Advantages

There are several advantages to the multiple choice style. If item writers are well trained and items are quality assured, this can be a very effective item format.[2] First of all, if students are instructed on the way in which the item format works and the myths surrounding the assessment type are destroyed, students are found to perform better on the test.[3] On many assessments, reliability has been shown to improve with larger numbers of items on a test, and with good sampling and care over case specificity overall test reliability can be further increased.[4]

Multiple choice tests often require less time to administer for a given amount of material than would tests requiring written responses, meaning that more questions can be given in the assessment without increasing the time needed; this results in a more comprehensive evaluation of the candidate's extent of knowledge. Even greater efficiency can be created by use of online examination delivery software. This increase in efficiency can offset the advantages offered by free-response items; if free-response items provide twice as much information but take four times as long to complete, the multiple-choice items present a better measurement tool.

Multiple choice questions lend themselves to the development of objective assessment items, however, without author training, questions can be subjective in nature. Because this style of test does not require a teacher to mark the given answers, test-takers are graded purely on their selections, creating a lower likelihood of teacher-student bias in the results. Factors irrelavent to the assessed material (such as handwriting and clarity of presentation) do not come into play in a multiple choice assessment, and so the candidate is marked purely on their knowledge of the topic. Finally, if test-takers are aware of how to use mark sheets and/or online examination tick boxes their responses can be relied upon with clarity.

[edit] Disadvantages

Multiple choice tests do have disadvantages. One of these is ambiguity; failing to interpret information as the test maker intended can result in an "incorrect" response, even if the taker's response is potentially valid. The term "multiple guess" has been used to describe this scenario because test-takers may attempt to guess rather than determine the correct answer. A free response test allows the test taker to make an argument for their viewpoint and potentially receive credit.

In addition, even if a student has some knowledge of a question, they receive no credit for knowing that information if they select the wrong answer, if the item is scored dichotomously. However, free response questions may allow a taker to demonstrate their understanding of the subject and receive partial credit. Finally, test takers may be able to rule out answers due to infeasibility. In some cases they may even test each answer individually, especially when dealing with mathematics, thereby increasing the chance of providing a correct answer without actually knowing the subject matter. On the other hand, especially on mathematics tests, some answers are included to actually encourage the test taker to logically rule out responses. An example would be giving the equation 4x2 + bx = − 3 and asking what b2 equals. The test taker should be able to eliminate all answers that are a interval between root of 49 es ±7, discharge values between (-7, 7), open intervalue ().. It should be noted that in some cases the candidate receives partial credit for certain incorrect, yet somewhat plausible, selections (and might be penalised for other, less suitable ones), but this is rare and is still not a solution that is as optimal as that offered in a written examination.

The use of multiple choice questions in certain educational fields is sometimes contested due to some of the negative aspects, whether actual or perceived, but the format remains popular due to its utility and cost effectiveness.

Another disadvantage of multiple choice examinations is that a student who is incapable of answering a particular question can simply select a random answer and still have a chance of receiving a mark for it. It is common practice for students with no time left to give all remaining questions random answers in the hope that they will get at least some of them right. Some exams, such as the Australian Mathematics Competition, have systems in place to negate this, in this case by making it more beneficial to not give an answer than to give a wrong one. This is usually not a great issue, however, since the odds of a student receiving significant marks by guessing are very low when four or more selections are available.

Additionally, it is important to note that questions phrased ambiguously may cause test-taker confusion. It is generally accepted that multiple choice questions allow for only one answer, where the one answer may encapsulate a collection of previous options. However, some test creators are unaware of this and might expect you to select multiple answers without explicitly saying that you can select more than one choice or providing the trailing encapsulation options.

[edit] Examples

In the equation 2x + 3 = 4, solve for x.

  1. 4
  2. 10
  3. 0.5
  4. 1.5
  5. 8


What is the IT superpower in India?

  1. Bangalore
  2. Mumbai
  3. Mysore
  4. Chennai

Multiple choice form (choose one)

Multiple choice form (choose several)

[edit] Notable tests with multiple choice sections

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Kehoe, Jerard (1995). Writing multiple-choice test items. Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation, 4(9). Retrieved February 12, 2008 from http://PAREonline.net/getvn.asp?v=4&n=9 .
  2. ^ Item Writing Manual by the National Board of Medical Examiners
  3. ^ Lutz Beckert, Tim J Wilkinson, Richard Sainsbury (2003) A needs-based study and examination skills course improves students' performance Medical Education 37 (5), 424–428.doi:10.1046/j.1365-2923.2003.01499.x
  4. ^ Steven M Downing (2004) Reliability: on the reproducibility of assessment data Medical Education 38 (9), 1006–1012. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2929.2004.01932.x