Re-Tooling the Multiple Choice Test

1. Where did they come from?

Multiple choice tests are ubiquitous in colleges and universities, and you’ve all probably taken your fair share, but have you ever wondered where they came from? They didn’t always exist. In fact, they are an invention of the 20^th century. You can blame a guy called Frederick Kelly, who completed his doctorate in 1914 at Kansas State Teacher’s College. He built a standardized reading comprehension test in an effort to stamp out teacher subjectivity when judging work. From there, the MC test exploded into education, aided by World War I, industrialization, and the invention the IMB 8005 Test Scoring Machine. Google it to see a picture of the machine that has brought so many so much stress!! This machine enabled the US military to test 1.7 million potential recruits in a year. Then came the Iowa Test of Basic Skills and the ACT, and the rest is history. A hundred years later, we are still using MC tests to evaluate, rank, and select learners.

High-stakes, timed, multiple-choice tests are normally given at the end of a unit of study to determine if students have "learned" the content. But really, they are a test of:

• Memory (acquisition, retention, and recall/recognition)
• Reading comprehension
• Deductive logic
• Mental endurance
• Calm under pressure
• “What is the exam-writer thinking?”

Perhaps these things are important in your discipline and reflected in your outcomes, in which case, they can be useful. However, MC tests do not effectively test deep conceptual understanding or whether someone is competent. Also, it is very difficult to create good questions. Just look at how long it takes for a data collecting instrument to be validated for research. It requires committee checking, pilot studies, and peer review. Multiple choice questions rarely come under that degree of scrutiny. 

2. The good and the bad

Multiple Choice tests generally get a bad wrap in progressive education circles. And, rightly so! That's because they are often written poorly, do not test meaningful outcomes, make students anxious, and are time-consuming to create. Test-takers often experience cognitive overload and fatigue. They are difficult for students with poor reasoning, working memory, or general reading skills. They leave no room for the elaboration of understanding, and in many contexts, more than one answer could be argued. But...

They are not all bad. In fact, multiple choice tests...

• are quick and efficient, especially when done electronically (which means students receive feedback more often....albeit feedback on one's ability to acquire, retain, and recall isolated information).
• offer opportunity for effortful retrieval of information, which in turn, strengthens memory (assessment-as-learning).
• can be used to see if a student watched, read, or was exposed to something (i.e. a quick way to provide extrinsic motivation and accountability).
• provide a model of succinct language with which to answer a question.
• can be advantageous for those with poor writing skills.
• are a familiar genre of assessment to most students.
• ensure standardization, if needed.

As you can see, most of these reasons suggests that multiple choice tests might be okay for formative assessment or as a tool for learning. 

3. An untraditional approach to traditional multiple choice

This course is about alternative assessment. So, how can you take a traditional assessment tool like the multiple choice test, turn it on its head, and use it differently? 

If you are going to use MC tests (because you have to or you want to), you can help your students be successful in the following ways:

• If your students need to write registry or ITA exams, be a learning coach. Teach memory and test-taking strategies. Give plenty of opportunities for low-stakes practice under simulated conditions. Train students to apply the correct thinking skills.
• Have students write exam questions for each other. Direct them to identify answer options that are: almost correct, commonly mistaken, trick answers…etc. In doing so, they are identifying what something is, and what it isn't. This is a great way to consolidate conceptual understanding.
• Use Kahoot or another online quizzing tool to add some fun!
• Get students to do a practice test alone, then with a partner, and then put the pairs together to discuss the questions. Compare answers. 
• Analyze the correct and incorrect responses on a practice test (was it a lucky guess, confident response, or misunderstanding of the question; did you not know the material, or knew the answer but couldn't extract from memory?)
• Help students dissociate the results of their tests from their competence as a practitioner or tradesperson.
• Give graded summarization assignments. For example, have them create an exam cheat sheet, or a “book-for-dummies” as a unit assignment.

Other things to consider when adapting the traditional approach to multiple choice testing are:

• will it be open-book or closed-book; timed or not; independent or collaborative; invigilated or not
• will it focus on content recall or the application of knowledge.
• at what point will the test/quiz fall in the course
• the weightiness of the results (i.e. the implications of success or failure)
• how an electronic version is set up (can you scroll back, skip questions, do you get instant feedback per question…etc.)
• how the results should be interpreted (what might it mean to be successful or unsuccessful on this test/quiz). 
• whether the student has the opportunity to learn from or do something with the results.

STOP, THINK & CONTRIBUTE: Have you used multiple choice questions and quizzing in a way that supports learning? If so, share your tips & tricks, and success stories to the Daily Conversation Forum. Let's repurpose this tool for the good!