WHY STUDENTS PREFER MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS

 

Multiple choice questions have been part of the educational system for decades, and they remain popular among students and instructors alike. These questions are straightforward and can be used to test a student’s knowledge of a topic or verify the correctness of an answer. In this article, we’ll discuss the pros, cons, and when to use multiple-choice questions. Test bank for textbook

Introduction: What Type of Test Questions do Students Prefer?

Multiple-choice tests have been widely accepted by students as an easy and quick way to answer questions. This type of exam questions offers several advantages over open-ended questions such as the potential to ask more questions, simple analysis, mobile friendliness and the ability to limit respondents in their answers. Moreover, the data produced by multiple choice tests is solely quantitative, which makes it easier to calculate item analysis and grade students objectively without any rater bias.

Advantages of Multiple-Choice Questions for Students

Multiple-choice questions offer a number of advantages for students. Firstly, they are quicker to answer than other types of questions, making them useful for assessing a student’s knowledge in a short period of time. Secondly, they can be easily and reliably scored, which helps to reduce errors when grading exams. Finally, multiple-choice questions allow students to guess at an answer if they don’t know it. This means that if there are four options and two can be ruled out, they have a 50% chance of getting the answer right.

Disadvantages of Multiple-Choice Questions for Students

Multiple choice questions can be a great tool for testing student understanding of a subject, but it’s important for educators to be aware of the potential drawbacks. Students may struggle to recall facts from memory when presented with a list of choices, and there is no way to correct for guessing on a multiple-choice test.

Additionally, multiple choice questions can limit the respondent in their answers, as they are only given a set of predetermined options. Furthermore, constructing good multiple choice questions can be time consuming and the data they produce is solely quantitative, making it difficult to assess higher order thinking skills. Lastly, test bank, while they save instructors time, often involve questions that only assess recall, rather than analysis, synthesis, application, or evaluation.

When to Use Multiple Choice Tests

When it comes to assessing student learning, multiple choice tests are a popular and effective option. They provide students with prompt feedback and can go beyond testing rote facts, measuring higher cognitive abilities. Research has found that the majority of students prefer multiple-choice exams because they offer them a chance of finding the correct answer even if they do not know anything about the question.

Given the inevitable effects of multiple-choice testing on both assessment and learning, it is important to understand when to use multiple-choice tests in order to get the most out of them. Generally speaking, increasing the number of answer choices increases the difficulty of the item, assuming all the alternatives are plausible.