A Critique of Multiple Choice

Talking about multiple choice tests and their pro’s and con’s it is important to understand and be familiar with your own experiences and feelings that you may have had while taking this form of testing. Obviously if you are a follower of this blog you know that education and the assessment of student learning is important to me and anyone else in the education field. Being that we know that every individual learns differently as we have become familiar with the theory of multiple intelligences we know that not every student is a great test taker. The issue of test taking is either magnified or diminished with the quality of test that is produced by the educator. If the multiple choice test is designed with thought and proper preparation behind it then the students are in a better situation to have success. However, if the test is designed with little or no thought behind it then it will be harder for students to have success as the multiple choice test is of poor quality.
Pro’s of multiple choice include objectivity which eliminates the human bias and error that can occur when grading the test. This provides the students with the ability to have a fair test that does not involve the biases of a teacher. Another pro of multiple choice tests include the ability to test students on a broad spectrum of subjects. Students may be tested in several different subject areas. The final pro that I would like to discuss is the speed of measurement that the tests may be corrected. Teachers who are faced with having to correct many students tests can simply put the scores in a scan tron machine and have instant results.
Con’s of multiple choice tests include no logical reasoning involved which can give students many different problems as they try to answer the questions. Another con of the tests include the fact that the students receive no partial credit for their answers. It makes sense that students can determine what the answers of a question can be while eliminating other answers, partial credit leaves the student with a better chance to succeed. Student learning should be the ultimate goal of teachers if the students do not succeed then the teacher is failing. The last con of multiple choice questions include the fact that students do not have the ability to defend their answers through a written response. So many times the test comes down to a guessing game instead of an evaluation of how students learn.

References:

The Benefits of Multiple-Choice Testing
Comments By: Tom Ramsay

http://www.ramsaycorp.com/info/articles/benefits.asp

http://www.k12academics.com/education-assessment-evaluation/multiple-choice/cons-multiple-choice