1. Read the question and try to answer it BEFORE looking at the
answers.
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Teacher Corollary: Your stem should be self-contained
The word "Lethbridge" by itself gives the student no hint as
to what is being asked. We don't even know if it is about a city or a person.
This places an unfair reading burden on the students. If they know what
the question is asking, they can find the answer much more quickly. An incomplete
stem may also tempt one to write distracters that are unrelated to the specific
learning objective. If the question is about geography, than all the distracters
should relate to geography.
Teacher Corollary: Encourage students to review all the alternatives
before choosing.
No diagnostic information available from such a question:
TEACHER COROLLARY: Proof thoroughly. Errors frustrate and defeat even
good students. Edmonton and Ottawa are Canadian cities, so they are almost certainly
wrong. By crossing out Edmonton and Ottawa, you have narrowed your guessing
to either Montgomery or Birmingham.
Choose the answer that seems best to you (Ottawa?) and move on to the
next question. Do not keep changing your mind. Research shows that your
first choice was probably the right one. Most people who change their answers
will change from a correct one to a wrong one. Only change your answer if
you are absolutely sure you made a mistake.
See if you can answer them now. Take as much time as you have. Never
leave a test early, unless you are confident you have answered every question
correctly.
Poor
(A) is the capital of Alberta
(B) is a character from Dr. Who
(C) is a type of beer
(D) has two art galleries
Better
(A) north of Calgary
(B) west of
(C) is further south than Calgary
But make sure you look at all the answers before choosing:
Even though (A) is true, (D) is the correct answer. It is important to read
all the answers, and not just take the first correct answer you see.
A) capital city
B) largest city
C) gateway to the north
D) all of the above
-if a child gets it wrong, is it because he didn't know the correct
answer, or because he got tangled in one of the other curricular areas you've
mixed in?
Stem does NOT have to be phrased as a complete question, but should be complete
in the sense that student can finish the phrased based on what's there
-ALSO, no diagnostic information because don't know why they got it wrong:
missed "all of the above" or thought Calgary was largest city?
-SOME research suggests that complete questions are best for young children
who have trouble keeping first half of an incomplete statement in their
head and have to go back and re-read the stem each time they read an alternative
Teacher Corollary: Do NOT use "all of the above" because it
is unfair to students who are scored as getting the question wrong, even
though they choose a correct alternative.
Similarily, you do not know if they got the question wrong because they
did not read to (D), or whether they thought (B) was untrue
The danger of a student choosing a correct answer without finding the "all
of the above" response is one reason to discourage the use "all
of the above".
2. Encourage students not to spend too much time on any one question.
Sometimes the question will seem to have no right answer:
2. The capital of Alberta is
A) Red Deer
B) Calgary
C) Taber
D) Lethbridge
By taking up student time, question errors often produce false impression
of low achievement on the rest of the test.
3. Encourage students to try to eliminate any of the wrong answers they
can before guessing
3. The capital of Alabama is
A) Montgomery
B) Birmingham
C) Edmonton
D) Ottawa
That means you have a 50/50 chance of getting it right, just by guessing.
[The answer is Montgomery. Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama, but
not the capital.]
You can get 25% on a multiple-choice test just by guessing. By carefully
eliminating answers you know must be wrong, you can increase your odds so
that you can get 30%, perhaps even 50% - even when you have to guess between
some answers.
Teacher Corollary: Identifying which alternatives students can eliminate
as obviously incorrect can provide useful diagnostic information
both on that student's achievement
and on how to revise the test in the future
4. Encourage students not to keep changing their answers.
Research suggests that their first choice was probably the right one.
Most people who change their answers will change from a right one to a wrong
one.
Encourage students to only change their answer if they are absolutely sure
they made a mistake, or if they only guessed the first time through and
are now redoing the question carefully.
Sometimes the question will seem to have two right answers:
1. Which of the following is a capital city?
A) Ottawa
B) Calgary
C) Edmonton
D) Lethbridge
STUDENT SHEET SAYS: (For example, if another question on the test reminds
you of the right answer.)
TEACHER COROLLARY: Avoid having one question provide clues to another
5. Encourage students to go back to those questions they circled as
being too hard or having no right answer.
If you still cannot answer the question, then guess. You have a 25% chance
of getting it right anyway; more if you can eliminate one or more of the
wrong answers. Never leave a blank on a multiple-choice test.
Teacher Corollary: Might want to consider making staying until end of
examination mandatory
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1. If you have absolutely no idea, choose (C).
Teachers: avoid temptation of trying to "hide" the correct answer int he middle of the wrong answers and make sure you randomize your answer key! You need equal numbers of (a), (b), (c) and (d)s, in case student fills in all (a)s, etc. |
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3. Sometimes the question accidentally gives a clue to the answer
by repeating words from the stem in the answer: 3. An example of a nuclear reaction is
B) combustion C) sublimination D) nuclear fission |
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4. Sometimes the right answer sticks out because it is much
longer than the other answers. You want the right answer to be completely true, so you are often tempted to add more details to the right answer to include important qualifiers. 4. The freezing point of water is
b) 100 degrees centigrade c) 0 degrees centigrade for pure water at sea level d) 0 degrees Fahrenheit |
5. Students can identify the correct answer by choosing the
"odd one out"
B) Girl C) Son D) Lad Teachers: This is called a "Three-one split" or ?/1 split" and should be avoided! 3/1 splits occur because having written the stem and keyed answer, the teacher chooses three antonyms as distracters This trick is dangerous, however. Sometimes the "odd one out" can fool you. Maybe the answer was "Son" because it is the only word in the list about kinship. But this trick might help if you are guessing blind anyway.  Anecdote |
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6. If you have to guess, and spot a typing error in one of the
answers, choose one of the other answers. Sometimes teachers will proofread a multiple-choice test by reading the question, looking at the right answer, and going on to the next question. Teachers often forget to proof the wrong answers. So if there is a typing error, it is more likely to be a wrong answer. (This does not work as often since teachers started using computers and spell-checkers, but you can still check for homonyms.) |