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17.1: Should I give a multiple-choice test, an essay test, or something entirely different?

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    By Vanessa Rutter

    Note

    “I didn't fail the test, I just found 100 ways to do it wrong”

    - Benjamin Franklin

    Learning Objectives

    • The student will be able to understand the advantages and disadvantages of multiple-choice tests
    • The student will be able to understand the advantages and disadvantages of essay tests
    • The student will be able to provide an example of why multiple-choice or essay tests are used
    • The student will be better informed of the results produced by multiple-choice, essay, and other tests

    Introduction

    Throughout school, teachers and other education officials use tests to assess how much information that the students have absorbed. This can be important in different ways depending on how the results will be used.

    Figuring out what students have learned in the classroom is an important issue in the education field (Swartz, 2006). Teachers want to know that when they assess what their students have learned that the teachers are using an accurate assessment strategy that will mesh with their learning targets. In the following information, the focus will be on affects of using multiple-choice, essay, or other tests along with why they are used.

    Advantages and disadvantages of multiple-choice tests

    Multiple-choice testing became popular in the 1900's because of the efficiency that it provided (Swartz, 2006). According to Matzen and Hoyt, "Beginning in 1901, the SAT was a written exam, but as the influence of psychometricians grew in 1926, the SAT became a multiple-choice test" (2006). Until recently, multiple-choice have been favored especially for SAT and ACT testing. For many years now, the SAT test was used for mostly multiple-choice questions and has changed in the past few years so that it now includes an essay section.

    Other advantages of multiple-choice tests include how quickly tests can be graded compared to others. There are machines that can quickly grade scantrons as well as bubble sheets that show right and wrong answers quickly for teachers when grading. It is much more cost efficient than having to read over written answers which take time and possibly training depending on who is employed to grade them (Holtzman, 2008).

    Others may say that multiple-choice tests are hard. In college, students have said that multiple-choice question tests are long, filled with many words, and very complicated (Holtzman, 2008). Some argue that multiple-choice question tests are based on testing the level of knowledge only and do not show a student's level of comprehension and application of information (Holtzman, 2008). It is hard to judge on a multiple-choice test whether the student guesses the right answer or didn't get the answer right because they were confused and chose one of the other answers (Swartz, 2006).

    Advantages and disadvantages of essay tests

    Essay tests have started to become more dominant because of the results that come along with it. Essay format questions contain a level of information quality that exceeds that of multiple-choice (Swartz, 2006). According to Swartz (2006), "They provide the opportunity to assess more complex student attributes and higher levels of attribute achievement". Another advantage of an essay is that the teacher can clearly see what the student knows instead of being misconstrued with multiple-choice tests were students can guess the right answers. A student that doesn't do well with test taking may find writing an essay to much more efficient rather than testing knowledge through multiple-choice.

    There are also problems associated with essay tests. Administering essay test can be harder and be less cost efficient. There is technology already available for grading multiple-choice tests that take up much less time then grading essay tests. Essays cannot be ran through a bubble sheet optical reader machine that quickly grades scantrons used for multiple choice questions tests. For a professor with over three hundred students, it is much more efficient to use multiple-choice tests than grade three hundred essays. Communication is an important factor as well. For a student that can not write well, they may feel at a disadvantage when being graded by writing an essay. This could be true for someone with a learning disability.

    Other Factors to Consider

    Note

    “If more testing were the answer to the problems in our schools, testing would have solved them a long time ago”

    Bill Goodling, chair of House Education Committee

    Multiple-choice and essay tests are not the only test out there. The recently modified SAT test states that if you put the wrong answer you will have points taken off in the multiple-choice section. This is an incentive to not fill in the circle unless the student knows the answer or is pretty sure of themselves. There are also short answer tests and fill in the blank, but the most popular are the ones mentioned before.

    Other tests may show an excess of seven different multiple-choice answers to choose from. The first three would be regular answers (A, B, or C). The next three answers will be where a student can get half credit for the answer by choosing D ("A or B"), E ("B or C), or F ("A or C"). Then the student will not get full credit by choosing D, E, or F but half credit by being able to narrow the answer down to the two answers they are certain of. The last choice would be G (I don't know). There the student would get a one-third of the credit for being honest rather than no points for guessing a wrong answer (Swartz, 2006).

    Conclusion

    In conclusion there are many advantages and disadvantages to both multiple-choice and essay tests. The teacher should pick out what is more suitable according to the classroom. Factors that would favor multiple-choice may be large class size, large amount of knowledge, technology already available for scantrons, less time for grading, and students with low writing scores. Factors that would favor essay tests could include smaller class sizes, many student teacher aides to help grade, assessment of application and comprehension, and students with high writing scores. Other tests are also being developed to bring the most from assessing students comprehension of information.

    Exercise \(\PageIndex{1}\)

    1. What is an advantage of using an essay test?

    A) It costs less money

    B) It contains a higher level of information quality

    C) It takes a long time to grade

    D) It can be graded with a bubble sheet optical reader

    2. What is a disadvantage of using multiple-choice tests?

    A) Students can guess the answers

    B) Tests require scantrons

    C) Tests are easier

    D) Tests can be graded faster

    3. If a teacher has a large group of students in their class, what kind of test would be less time consuming to grade?

    A) Fill in the blank test

    B) Essay test

    C) Oral test

    D) Multiple choice test

    4. Multiple-choice tests assess mostly what type of cognitive information from students?

    A) Evaluation

    B) Application

    C) Knowledge

    D) Comprehension

    Answer

    1. B

    2. A

    3. D

    4. C

    References

    Holtzman, M. (2008). Demystifying application-based multiple-choice questions. College Teaching, 56(2), 114-120. Retrieved on March 22, 2009 from EBSCOhost database: http://web.ebscohost.com.proxy.lib.odu.edu/ehost/pdf?vid=3&hid=105&sid=ff9aaa2c-b758-4f95-8d5c-8f5a3fcc36c5%40sessionmgr109

    Matzen, R. N. Jr., & Hoyt, J. E. (2004). Basic writing placement with holistically scored essays: Research evidense. Journal of Developmental Education, 28(1), 2-4,6,8,20,23,34. Retrieved on March 21, 2009 from EBSCOhost database: http://web.ebscohost.com.proxy.lib.odu.edu/ehost/pdf?vid=4&hid=105&sid=ff9aaa2c-b758-4f95-8d5c-8f5a3fcc36c5%40sessionmgr109

    Swartz, S. M. (2006). Acceptance and accuracy of multiple choice, confidence-level, and essay question formats for graduate students. Journal of Education for Business, 81(4), 215-220. Retrieved on March 21, 2009 from EBSCOhost database: http://web.ebscohost.com.proxy.lib.odu.edu/ehost/pdf?vid=3&hid=105&sid=ff9aaa2c-b758-4f95-8d5c-8f5a3fcc36c5%40sessionmgr109

    This page titled 17.1: Should I give a multiple-choice test, an essay test, or something entirely different? is shared under a CC BY-SA license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Jennfer Kidd, Jamie Kaufman, Peter Baker, Patrick O'Shea, Dwight Allen, & Old Dominion U students.