Multiple choice tests have been a staple of student assessment for decades, and it is likely that they will remain so for a long time to come. The biggest advantages include that they are extremely easy to grade, and it is simple for teachers to identify where students and classes at large struggle. A simple scan through a grading machine will score the tests, and item analyses options help teachers see where there are areas of strength and weakness.
Multiple choice tests are also prominently the tool-of-choice for standardized tests, giving a large body of organizations an one-size-fits-all metric against which student capacity is measured.
There are many ways to do multiple choice tests right. With some strategy and design, any multiple choice assessment can be leveraged into an effective tool for learning and reflection. However, there are many different ways to assess student skills, and multiple choice tests need to be understood within the spectrum of options.
Have Students Write Out Their Answers to Show Their Thinking
Another powerful assessment tool for teachers is to have students write down their answers to questions. Instead of having students merely select the correct option, written assessments compel students to compose their own unique answers and to show their thinking and rationale behind them.
A written assessment could come in many forms, depending on skills and knowledge the test is designed to assess. Whether one question, several questions, or many questions, the written test has several advantages that cannot be as easily replicated in multiple choice assessments:
Advantage 1: Students are forced to demonstrate the extent of their knowledge. There is no such thing as “guessing” on a written test. Students either know the material or they don’t, and the format of the test requires that they express their understanding rather than merely bubble in someone else’s words.
Advantage 2: Articulation is part of the assessment. While a multiple choice test can help assess student thinking, it allows little room for student articulation. A written assessment instead requires that students perform two essential tasks – thinking AND articulation of that thinking.
Advantage 3: Students can EXPLAIN their thinking. Students often try to “argue” their reason for picking a certain multiple choice answer that, in their mind, seemed perfectly justifiable at the time. Whether they have a good reason or not, if we reflect on it, it is exactly that skill – the identifying and arguing in defense of one’s answer – that we really want students to do. A written assessment offers a format for students to defend their answer by proving their reasoning is justified.
Advantage 4: Written assessments take less time to create. While proper time should be allocated to deciding what exact questions to ask and how to phrase them, written assessments generally require less time designing than multiple choice tests. Multiple choice assessments require many questions and many carefully selected distractor choices. Written tests only require the questions. (But yes, you’re correct, they do take more time to grade.)
Advantage 5: Teachers can provide better feedback on answers. A multiple choice question is either right or wrong. On a written assessment, an answer may be partially correct, and different portions of the answer may receive different attention. A written, developed answer allows for more opportunity for a teacher to assess thinking and articulation, and an instructor can target feedback to address specific portions of a student’s response.
What You Use, Use it Intentionally
I used to laugh when going over multiple choice tests with my classes. Students who got an answer wrong would often “argue” over why their answer was correct. I laughed because their explaining of their answer and defending their reasoning was really the skill I was going after in the first place. Sometimes, if their justification was good, I would give them credit for it. That’s one of the reasons I shifted to using written assessments as my tool of choice.
Every assessment has its pros and cons, its opportunities and strategies for successfully measuring student skill and providing feedback for growth.
While there are many different kinds of assessments, we should always bear in mind the various advantages of different assessment tools, and I believe written assessment offers several advantages that multiple choice tests cannot. As a teacher is deciding how to best prepare and assess their students, they should take the advantages and disadvantages of each form of testing into consideration to make the best choice!
How do you use written tests in your classroom? What other aspects do you consider when designing your assessments? I would love it if you share your thinking with us in a comment!