by Holly Cowart
Ph.D. student, University of Florida

The advantages of multiple choice testing include ease of grading and student familiarity with the format. The disadvantages include the fact that students can guess the correct answers and often aren’t tested on higher-order thinking. The time required to develop a good multiple choice test may not be justified in a small course.

DO’s for creating multiple choice exams

• Randomize correct answers
• Use parallel construction (in stem and choices)
• Adapt, not adopt questions
• Use application
• Put most of the words in the stem, not the answer
• Make the stem clear
• Provide plausible answer choices
• Write concise answer options (or at least similar in length)
• Put your answers in logical order
• Pretest your questions – Wilbert McKeachie recommends having a skilled test-taker who doesn’t know the material take your test

Continue reading →