Re-Tooling the Multiple Choice Test

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.