ALLAMA IQBAL OPEN UNIVERSITY

ISLAMABAD

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

(Assignment No: 01)

Submitted by: Aleena Bashir

Submitted to: Ch. Nasir Ahmad
Student ID: 0000329047
Course: Educational Assessment And Evaluation (8602)

SEMESTER AUTUMN – 22
B.ed (1.5 year)
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 Q. No. 1;
Explain the concepts of measurement, assessment and evaluation. Further elaborate
the difference between them with examples.
Answer:

Despite their significant role in education the terms measurement, assessment, and evaluation
are usually are usually confused with each other. Mostly people use these terms interchangeably and
feel it very difficult to explain the difference among them. Each of the these terms has a specific
meaning sharply distinguished from the others.

Measurement  in education includes the development of instruments or protocols for obtaining

information, procedures for analyzing and evaluating the quality of that information, and strategies
for communicating the information to audiences, such as educators, policymakers, parents, and
students.

Definitions of Measurement:

1. According to James M. Bradefield: Measurement is the process of assigning symbols to the

dimension of phenomenon in order to characterise the status of phenomenon as precisely as
possible.

2. According to J.P. Guilford: Measurement as the ‘assignment of numerals to objects or events

according to certain rules.

3. The Encyclopedia of Educational Research explains measurement in more refined terms; to

measure means to observe or determine the magnitude of a variant’.

Hence, measurement may be defined as, - ”the assignment of one of a set of numbers to each of a
set of persons or objects according to certain established rules‘.

Nature of Measurement:

i. It should be quantitative in nature.

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 ii. It must be precise and accurate (instrument).

iii. It must be reliable.

iv. It must be valid.

iv. It must be objective in nature.

Purposes of Measurement:

i. Measure pupils‘ achievement and motivate pupils‘/ student/s learning.

ii. Pupils have the right to know the progress they are making whether they have attained the
objectives of the subject matter or not, thus results must be made known to them.

iii. It can also encourage pupils to study more.

iv. They will be motivated to participate actively in class and exert all efforts just to make certain
that they pass.

iv. They will know the quality and amount of work they have to strive for.

Need for Measurement:

The needs of measurement are as follows:-

i. For measure the ability of students, finding out their interest sand aptitude at the time of
admission, and admit than on its basis.

ii. For measure their intelligence and personality after admission and accordingly divide them
into specific classes, and to assist in their personality development.

iii. For find out from time to time the effect of teaching on the students (educational
achievements or change of behaviour), and to guide the students on its basis and to inspire
them to learn.

iv. For measure and evaluate the educational achievements of students from time to time and
to provide them feedback.

Types of Measurement;

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 i. Qualitative Measurement: Perceiving the characteristics of an object, person or activity in
the form of a quality is called qualitative measurement; for example, describing a student
as very intelligent, or dull is qualitative measurement.

ii. Quantitative Measurement Measuring the characteristics of an object, person or activity in

the form of quantity is called quantitative measurement; for example, to measure the I.Q
(Intelligence Quotient) of a student as 140, 120 or 110 is quantitative measurement.

Concept of Scales of Measurement;

Any test can be useful only when it is reliable, and it should be able to measure only that attribute or
characteristic for which it has been constructed. The tools for measurement have been needed from
ancient times, and we need them in our daily life. The basis of educational measurement is data.
Whatever the type of measurement physical, social, economic or psychological, it is necessary to
gather data.

From the viewpoint of convenience, we place the available data into four levels. These four levels are
arranged in a definite order. The lower level can be easily measured, but the measurement done by it
will be under some doubt. On the contrary, measurement in the higher level is more complex, but the
inferences drawn from it will be more accurate. Thus, accuracy of measurement depends on its level.
Generally, individuals, objects, events, observations and characteristics are given a quantitative form
under the measurement process. Measurement Scales are used to categorize or quantity variables. In
essence, each scale has a single objective, and its rules, theory, characteristics, limitations and
statistical techniques are different from other levels fully.

Measurement has four chief levels and on the basis of these levels Scales of Measurement has been
classified into the following four types: i. Nominal scale ii. Ordinal scale iii. Interval scale, and iv.
Ratio scale.

“Assessment involves the use of experimental data on student’s learning to refine programs and
improve students’ learning.” – Allen

Assessments help the teachers gauge whether all the objectives stated at set out have been met or
not. Assessments are critical to student learning. It not only helps the student demonstrate their
learning and knowledge on a given topic, it also gives the teacher an opportunity to understand why
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students fair well on their exams. If the average score of the class is below average, then the teacher
knows that they need to change something about the way the lesson content was delivered earlier.

Areas of Assessments

Assessments can be categorized into three main areas, each serving a different purpose: initial,
formative and summative Initial Assessments

Initial assessments should take place prior to the commencement of a particular programme or
course. These may happen at pre-entry, entry or induction stage. The initial assessment will provide
information about the learners prior knowledge, skills, qualifications, learning styles and any support
learner may need. When the current levels of ability have been assessed goals can be set and a plan
future learning can be implemented.

There are different types of initial assessment:

• Enrolment Form - shows what qualifications the learner has if they have special needs.

• Interview when you interview the learner you will be able to ask many questions.
 Diagnostic Tests will inform you if the learner has difficulty in reading or writing.

Formal Assessment

Formative assessments take place during the course and it gives the learner feedback which they can
use to improve their future performance. It also allows the learner to build on their strengths and
learn from mistakes by listening to the assessors feed back.

It enables progress to be regularly monitored and reviewed so that a learner can see what they need
to develop further before a final assessment and identify gaps in their learning. It shows the learner
how much they have learnt so far which encourages and motivates them.

Methods of Formal Assessment include:

o Tracking Sheet
o Observations

o Tutorials

o Reviews

o Oral Questioning

o Workbooks

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Summative assessments

Summative assessments normally take place at the end of a unit of a course or topic. They
demonstrate the extent of a learners success in meeting the performance criteria and are used to
measure the intended learning outcomes of a module or programme. Summative assessment is used
to quantify achievement, to reward achievement, to provide data for selection (to the next stage in
education or to employment).

Methods of Summative Assessment include:

o Exit Interview
o Portfolio Completion

o Demonstration

o Summative Testing

o Evaluation Forms.
Feedback is important because it allows students to learn from their mistakes. In order to make
the assessment as effective as possible, teachers should provide their feedback as well as a letter
grade. It is important that students understand why a particular question was incorrect or why their
essay did not meet the requirements in order to learn from their mistakes.
Feedback is given immediately in formative assessments. Classroom discussions, short quizzes, and
games such as Kahoot, are all great examples of formative assessment.
 Interim assessment also contains feedback, but it's not provided immediately. Generally, once the
feedback has been provided to the students and it has been assimilated, students are given another
opportunity to re-do and re-submit the assessment in order to show their newly acquired
understanding of the content and how it could be improved. An example might be a unit test. 
Summative assessment is not accompanied by any feedback. It is used more as a tool to get an
insight into student learning and progress. Year-ending exams are an example of summative
assessment.
Evaluation
Evaluation is an act or process that assigns ‗value‘ to a measure. When we are evaluating, we are
making a judgment as to the suitability, desirability or value of a thing.
In the teaching–learning situation, evaluation is a continuous process and is concerned with more
than just the formal academic achievement of students.
Evaluation refers to the assessment of a student‘s progress towards stated objectives, the efficiency
of the teaching and the effectiveness of the curriculum. Evaluation is a broad concept dealing not just
with the classroom examination system; but also evaluating the cognitive, affective and psychomotor
domain of students. The success and failure of teaching depends upon teaching strategies, tactics and
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aids. Thus, the evaluation approach improves the instructional procedure. Glaser‘s basic model of
teaching refers to this step as a feedback function‘.
So, evaluation is a philosophical and subjective concept. It includes both quantitative and
qualitative descriptions, and value judgment. Therefore,
Evaluation = Quantitative Description (Measurement) and/or Qualitative Description (Non-
measurement) +Value Judgments.
According to James M. Bradefield: Evaluation is the assignment of symbols to phenomenon in order
to characterize the worth or value of the phenomenon usually with reference to some social, cultural
and scientific standards.
Characteristics of Evaluation
 It is a systematic process.
 It measures the effectiveness of learning that experiences provide.
 It measures how far the instructional objectives have been achieved.
 It uses certain tools like tests, observation, interview etc.
 It is a continuous process.
 It is a subjective judgment.
 It is philosophical in nature.
 It includes quantitative description, qualitative description and value judgment.
 It gets data from measurement.
 It not only determines the magnitude, but also adds meaning to measurement.
 It involves values and purposes.
Purposes of Evaluation:
According to Oguniyi (1984), educational evaluation is carried out from time to time for the
following purposes:
i. to determine the relative effectiveness of the programme in terms of students‘ behavioural
output;
ii. to make reliable decisions about educational planning;
iii. to ascertain the worth of time, energy and resources invested in a programme
iv. . to identify students‘ growth or lack of growth in acquiring desirable knowledge, skills,
attitudes and societal values;
v. . To help teachers determine the effectiveness of their teaching techniques and learning
materials;

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vi. . To help motivate students to want to learn more as they discover their progress or lack of
progress in given tasks;
vii. . To encourage students to develop a sense of discipline and systematic study habits.
viii. to provide educational administrators with adequate information about teachers‘
effectiveness and school need;
ix. . To acquaint parents or guardians with their children‘s performances;
x. . To identify problems that might hinder or prevent the achievement of set goals;
xi. To predict the general trend in the development of the teaching-learning process;
xii. . To ensure an economical and efficient management of scarce resources;
xiii. To provide an objective basis for determining the promotion of students from one class to
another as well as the award of certificates;
xiv. . To provide a just basis for determining at what level of education the possessor of a
certificate should enter a career.
Types of Evaluation:
Evaluation is a process of judgment of value or worth of a process or product, which may be
the achievement, aptitude, interest, skill or other aspects of student‘s personality or the method of
teaching and learning.
There are many types of evaluation.These include: 1. Formative Evaluation 2. Summative Evaluation
3. Placement Evaluation 4. Diagnostic Evaluation.

Measurement Assessment Evaluation

1. Measurement is the Assessment is a process by 1. Evaluation refers to the
process of the delegation of a which the information is comparison made between
numerical index to the object obtained to achieve a particular the score of one learner with
consistently and goal. It has qualitative and that of other learners to judge
meaningfully. It quantitative information. the results.  It
has quantitative information. has quantitative information
+ qualitative informative +
value judgment.
2. It involves observations It contains the information with 2. It includes observations
which can be expressed in marks, grades as well as the which are quantitative as well
numerical terms.  interest and goals of the as qualitative. 
student.
3. It is the assessment of Assessment has the specific goal 3. It is the assessment of
numerals as per certain to find out the learning symbols, grades, or levels as

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 standards.  difficulties. per the established standards. 
4. It does not express the It contains diagnostic tests, 4. The student’s logical
student’s logical assumption.  personal interactions and assumption can be made. 
discussion with other teachers.
5. It requires relatively less It requires some energy and 5. It requires more energy and
energy and time and is time to find out the learning time and is objective
content oriented.  behaviour of the student. oriented. 

To sum up, we measure distance, we assess learning, and we evaluate results in terms of some set of
criteria. These three terms are certainly share some common attributes, but it is useful to think of
them as separate but connected ideas and processes.
Q. No. 2;
Define classroom assessment. What is the role of classroom assessment in teaching?
Classroom assessment is both a teaching approach and a set of techniques. The approach is that
the more you know about what and how students are learning, the better you can plan learning
activities to structure your teaching. The techniques are mostly simple, non-graded, anonymous, in-
class activities that give both you and your students useful feedback on the teaching-learning process.
Classroom assessment differs from tests and other forms of student assessment in that it is
aimed at course improvement, rather than at assigning grades. The primary goal is to better
understand your students' learning and so to improve your teaching.
Classroom Assessment helps faculty to focus on student learning. By determining what students have
learned and what is unclear, instructors can focus the class more effectively to meet the learning
needs of that group. This may mean reviewing some areas, or spending less time in other areas.
Unlike student evaluation surveys [summative evaluation] which are typically given at the end of the
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semester, Classroom Assessment provides an on-going formative evaluation. The instructor can find
out what can be changed immediately to help students to learn.
Role of classroom assessment in teaching;
"The central purpose of Classroom Assessment is to empower both teachers and their students to
improve the quality of learning in the classroom" through an approach that is "learner-centered,
teacher-directed, mutually beneficial, formative, context-specific, and firmly rooted in good
practice" (Angelo & Cross, 1993, p. 4).
CATs are easy to design, administer and analyze, and have the added benefit of involving students in
their own learning. They are typically non-graded, anonymous in-class activities that are embedded in
the regular work of the class. The 50 CATS are divided into three broad categories:
 Techniques for assessing course-related knowledge and skills
 Techniques for assessing learner attitudes, values and self-awareness
 Techniques for assessing learner reactions to instruction

EXAMPLES OF EASY-TO-USE CATS

 Minute Papers and Muddiest Point, the best known and easiest CATs, are used to assess
course-related knowledge and skills.
 One-Sentence Summaries challenge students to answer the questions "Who does what to
whom, when, where, how, and why?" about a particular topic, and then to synthesize those
answers into a single, informative, grammatical, and long summary sentence.

AN EXAMPLE OF A MORE COMPLEX CAT

 Concept Maps are drawings or diagrams showing the mental connections that students make
between a major concept stressed in class and other concepts they have learned. This
technique provides an observable and assessable record of the students' conceptual schemata
(the patterns of associations they make in relation to a given focal concept).

Assessment is used to:

• inform and guide teaching and learning

A good classroom assessment plan gathers evidence of student learning that informs teachers'
instructional decisions. It provides teachers with information about what students know and
can do. To plan effective instruction, teachers also need to know what the student
misunderstands and where the misconceptions lie. In addition to helping teachers formulate
the next teaching steps, a good classroom assessment plan provides a road map for students.
Students should, at all times, have access to the assessment so they can use it to inform and
guide their learning.
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 • help students set learning goals

Students need frequent opportunities to reflect on where their learning is at and what needs
to be done to achieve their learning goals. When students are actively involved in assessing
their own next learning steps and creating goals to accomplish them, they make major
advances in directing their learning and what they understand about themselves as learners.

• assign report card grades

Grades provide parents, employers, other schools, governments, post-secondary institutions

and others with summary information about student learning.

• motivate students

Research (Davies 2004; Stiggins et al. 2004) has shown that students will be motivated and confident
learners when they experience progress and achievement, rather than the failure and defeat
associated with being compared to more successful peers.

Conclusion;
Testing concerning assessments can provide both teachers and students with information about the
level of knowledge, skills, difficulties in foreign language learning and which activities and methods
are the most useful. Testing is a means of evaluation of student activities and can be used for a
clear criterion or scale. The word assessment means the consideration of a person and an
evaluation of them, and has a wider rationale than testing (Akpinar & Çakildere, 2013; Brown, 2004),
which can be used with the items, to test, measure and evaluate. In the light of alternative
assessments, teachers may identify what is important in their teaching process and select
assessment strategies suitable for the characteristics of the learners.
Knowing and organizing principles of assessment, develops the planning of assessment of a foreign
language. So the following issues have to be taken into consideration by the teacher, in the planning
of teaching foreign languages with regard to assessment:
1. Instruction and assessment should reflect one another
2. All kinds of assessments are meaningful while using foreign language.
3. Assessment must have a primary place in teaching
4. Assessment principles have to be put into consideration for creating teaching materials by the
teachers, for the students.
5. Negative factors that affect learners such as anxiety and worry, should be the focus of teacher
attention.

To sum up, the significance of assessment in the process of language teaching has been known
recently. Assessment is very important for the students to acquire a language. It plays a crucial role in
the process of learning, and connects students to new knowledge using their current abilities.

Q. No. 3;
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 Describe the types of achievement tests. Explain the purpose of these tests in detail.

Achievement test is most probably the very important area of appraisal for a guidance programme for
the benefit of the individual. Scores on achievement test are excellent means for evaluating
educational (academic) attainments and for the individual in the concerned area of the subject
covered by the test. It involves a determination of how quickly, how accurately and at what level an
individual can perform the tasks taken to represent accomplishment.
Achievement test measures present proficiency, mastery and understanding of general and specific
areas of knowledge. Achievement tests attempt to measure what and how individual has learnt,
viz. his present standard of performance. Scores of achievement test indicate the academic status
of the individual learner in different subjects as a whole or individually.

Achievement test scores are quite helpful clues for vocational guidance since these mostly related to
aptitudes and interests. In the circumstances the achievement test should be based on systematic
testing programme of every school that desires to undertake suitable guidance service for the
individuals.
Types of Achievement Test:
Achievement tests can be of various categories basing on form, purpose, time, method and
subject area. Achievement test can be of different forms like oral test, written test and practical test.
Items of achievement test can be essay type questions or short answer questions or objective type of
questions or combination of all these types.

Achievement test may be of different types on the basis of the purpose for which it is administered.
They are diagnostic tests, prognostic test, accuracy test, power test, spit test etc. Achievement tests
can be administered in different period of time. When it is based on time or period factor, the test is
summative test, daily test, weekly test, fortnightly test, monthly test, quarterly test, half yearly test,
annual test or final examination at the end of course of study of an academic year.

Types of Achievement Tests

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(a) Summative Evaluation:

Testing is done at the end of the instructional unit. The test score is seen as the summation of all
knowledge learned during a particular subject unit.

(b) Formative Evaluation:

Testing occurs constantly with learning so that teachers can evaluate the effectiveness of teaching
methods along with the assessment of students' abilities.

On the basis of content or subject matter, achievement tests are categorized as language test, reading
test, spelling test, history test, geography test, mathematic test, science test etc. Broadly speaking, all
these achievement tests can be divided into two on the basis of quality that is standardized test and
teacher made test. Here let us have a discussion on the objective type of achievement test.

The traditional system of examination or the essay type of examination has come under heavy fire.
Students reject it because of its heavy strength or pressure. The parents criticize it because of its
injurious effect on the physical and mental health of children.

The teachers complain because of its harmful effect on school work. The practical psychologist speaks
ill of it because of its unreliability and invalidity and the educational theorist attacks it because it lacks
definiteness in aim and purpose.

To remove some of the evils of the essay type examinations, objective tests seem to be very useful.
Modern educationists give much stress on this type of tests to supplement the traditional type of
tests. The All India Council for Secondary Education has set up an “evaluation unity.”

Many workshops and seminars have been organised during the past 10 years with a view to preparing
new type tests. The services of Dr. Bloom of America, an expert in evaluation were secured for some
time for the purpose of popularizing the new type of tests and given training to a large number of
teachers in the use of these tests.

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How do we determine what a person knows about a certain subject? Or how do we determine an
individual's level of skill in a certain area? One of the most common ways to do this is to use an
achievement test. An achievement test is designed to measure a person's level of skill,
accomplishment, or knowledge in a specific area.

Closer Look at Achievement Tests

The achievement tests that most people are familiar with are the standard exams taken by every
student in school. Students are regularly expected to demonstrate their learning and proficiency in a
variety of subjects. In most cases, certain scores on these achievement tests are needed in order to
pass a class or continue on to the next grade level.

The role of achievement tests in education has become much more pronounced since the passage of
the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act. 1 This legislation focused on standard-based education which was
used to measure educational goals and outcomes. While this law was later replaced by the 2015 Every
Student Succeeds Act, achievement testing remains a key element in measuring educational success
and plays a role in determining school funding. 2

But achievement tests are not just important during the years of K-12 education and college. They can
be used to assess skills when people are trying to learn a new sport. If you were learning dance,
martial arts, or some other specialized athletic skill, an achievement test can be important for
determining your current level of ability and possible need for further training. 
Examples of Achievement Tests

Some more examples of achievement tests include:

 A math exam covering the latest chapter in your book

 A test in your social psychology class

 A comprehensive final in your Spanish class

 The ACT and SAT exams

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  A skills demonstration in your martial arts class

Each of these tests is designed to assess how much you know at a specific point in time about a
certain topic. Achievement tests are not used to determine what you are capable of; they are
designed to evaluate what you know and your level of skill at the given moment.

As you can see, achievement tests are widely used in a number of domains, both academic- and
career-related. Students face an array of achievement tests almost every day as they complete their
studies at all grade levels, from pre-K through college. Such tests allow educators and parents to
assess how their kids are doing in school, but also provide feedback to students on their own
performance.

Need of tests;

Achievement tests are often used in educational and training settings. In schools, for example,
achievements tests are frequently used to determine the level of education for which students might
be prepared. Students might take such a test to determine if they are ready to enter into a particular
grade level or if they are ready to pass of a particular subject or grade level and move on to the next.

Standardized achievement tests are also used extensively in educational settings to determine if
students have met specific learning goals. Each grade level has certain educational expectations, and
testing is used to determine if schools, teachers, and students are meeting those standards.

So how exactly are achievement tests created? In many instances, subject matter experts help
determine what content standards should exist for a certain subject. These standard represent the
things that an individual at a certain skill or grade level should know about a particular subject. Test
designers can then use this information to develop exams that accurately reflect the most important
things that a person should know about that topic.

Achievement Tests vs Aptitude Tests

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Achievement tests differ in important ways from aptitude tests. An aptitude test is designed to
determine your potential for success in a certain area. For example, a student might take an aptitude
test to help determine which types of career they might be best suited for. An achievement test, on
the other hand, would be designed to determine what a student already knows about a specific
subject.

Conclusion;

Achievement tests play an important role in education, but they have also been the subject of
criticism at times. Some feel that excessive testing interferes with the educational process and places
too much emphasis on passing a test while ignoring more important abilities such as critical and
creative thinking. However, such tests do provide a fairly efficient way to get an idea of how well
students are performing.

Q. No. 4;
What are the types of selection types tests items? What are the advantages
of multiple choice questions?
Multiple Choice Questions;

As a member of the closed-ended family of questions, multiple choice questions are among the most
commonly used and popular survey question types.

They allow your respondents to select one or more options from a list of answers that you define.
They’re intuitive, easy to use in different ways, help produce easy-to-analyse data and provide
mutually exclusive choices.

Pros and cons of multiple choice questions

The reason why multiple choice questions are popular is due to the many benefits they offer survey
takers and survey creators alike.

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The advantages

Here’s some key benefits of multiple choice questions.

 Quick and simple to answer

As long as you’ve used clear language and you’ve provided easy to follow answer options for your
respondents to select from, then multiple choice questions should be quick and simple for them to
complete.

 You can potentially ask more questions

Considering how long it would take someone to answer a free text open-ended question, if your
survey included just multiple choice questions, which are a lot quicker to answer, you could
potentially include a lot more questions in your survey.

 Mobile friendly

Compared with other questions types, notably ones with text boxes, multiple choice questions are
much easier to complete on smartphones and tablets. And when you consider that Brits are now
spending 2½ hours online on their smartphones daily, it’s more important than ever to ensure your
online survey is simple to complete on a mobile device.

 Simple to analyse

When you’ve only given respondents a finite list of answers to choose from there are no worries
about having to deal with irrelevant or stupid answers that you might face with an open-ended
question.

Subsequently, your data will be much easier to analyse, interpret and draw conclusions from.

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The disadvantages

Despite the many benefits of multiple choice questions, they do have some shortcomings, so it’s
prudent to be aware of these before planning your next survey.

 They can be time-consuming to create

Although they’re quick to process, given the many types of multiple choice questions that are
available, and the many options and steps you need to go through, multiple choice questions can take
a bit longer than other question types to set up. So, it’s best to be aware of this before you get
started.

 The data they produce is solely quantitative

If you’re after data that is quick and simple to gather, and draw insight and conclusions from, then
quantitative data is ideal for you.

However, if you’re looking to get a deeper insight into the reasons and motivations why people have
answered in the way they have, you’re not going to get that with multiple choice questions. Instead,
you would need to include open ended questions that would encourage respondents to leave this
kind of qualitative feedback.

 They can limit the respondent in their answers

Depending on what your survey is about, there can be some occasions when there’s not a suitable
answer available from the options you have provided for a respondent to select. In this case it can be
helpful to provide them with an ‘other’ option textbox after your question.

 How to use multiple choice questions

When you’re considering multiple choice questions for your survey, it’s important to be aware of the
options open to you.

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 There are two main types of multiple choice questions, single answer and multiple answer. Lets look
at each in turn…

 Single answer questions

Multiple choice – one answer questions, are where a list of options is presented to a respondent and
that respondent can only choose one answer.

They’re typically used for binary answers, like yes/no, questions with ratings, or nominal scales.
They’re best suited to situations where only one answer can be true, or when you’re asking people to
reveal how much they agree or disagree with something you have presented to them, such as you
would with a Likert scale question.

Q. No. 5;
Discuss in detail factors affecting the reliability of test.

Reliability refers to a measure which is reliable to the extent that independent but
comparable measures of the same trait or construct of a given object agree. Reliability depends on
how much variation in scores is attributable to random or chance errors.

MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS

Advantages
 Quick and easy to score, by hand or electronically
 Can be written so that they test a wide range of higher-order thinking skills
 Can cover lots of content areas on a single exam and still be answered in a class period
Disadvantages
 Often test literacy skills: “if the student reads the question carefully, the answer is easy to
recognize even if the student knows little about the subject” (p. 194)
 Provide unprepared students the opportunity to guess, and with guesses that are right,
they get credit for things they don’t know
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 Expose students to misinformation that can influence subsequent thinking about the
content
 Take time and skill to construct (especially good questions)
TRUE-FALSE QUESTIONS

Advantages
 Quick and easy to score
Disadvantages
 Considered to be “one of the most unreliable forms of assessment” (p. 195)
 Often written so that most of the statement is true save one small, often trivial bit of
information that then makes the whole statement untrue
 Encourage guessing, and reward for correct guesses
SHORT-ANSWER QUESTIONS

Advantages
 Quick and easy to grade
 Quick and easy to write
Disadvantages
 Encourage students to memorize terms and details, so that their understanding of the
content remains superficial
ESSAY QUESTIONS

Advantages
 Offer students an opportunity to demonstrate knowledge, skills, and abilities in a variety of
ways.
 Can be used to develop student writing skills, particularly the ability to formulate
arguments supported with reasoning and evidence
Disadvantages
 Require extensive time to grade
 Encourage use of subjective criteria when assessing answers

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 If used in class, necessitate quick composition without time for planning or revision, which
can result in poor-quality writing
QUESTIONS PROVIDED BY TEST BANKS
Advantages
 Save instructors the time and energy involved in writing test questions
 Use the terms and methods that are used in the book
Disadvantages
 Rarely involve analysis, synthesis, application, or evaluation (cross-discipline research
documents that approximately 85 percent of the questions in test banks test recall)
 Limit the scope of the exam to text content; if used extensively, may lead students to
conclude that the material covered in class is unimportant and irrelevant
We tend to think that these are the only test question options, but there are some interesting
variations. The article that promoted this review proposes one: Start with a question, and revise
it until it can be answered with one word or a short phrase. Do not list any answer options for
that single question, but attach to the exam an alphabetized list of answers. Students select
answers from that list. Some of the answers provided may be used more than once, some may
not be used, and there are more answers listed than questions. It’s a ratcheted-up version of
matching. The approach makes the test more challenging and decreases the chance of getting an
answer correct by guessing.

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