Questions on the Multiple Choice Test

Questions on the Multiple Choice Test

After reading an article on Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead in a “Rolling Stone” magazine, these are two examples of questions that I would ask my students on a test (in a multiple-choice format.) These questions are also representative of two different levels of Bloom’s taxonomy.

1) As a member of the Grateful Dead, what was Jerry Garcia’s only radio, billboard hit single?

a) Throwing Stones

b) Touch of Grey

c) Built to Last

d) Franklin’s Tower

Correct answer: b. Touch of Grey.

2) In chronological order, identify which answer represents the progression of keyboard players (pianists) that Jerry Garcia played with in the Grateful Dead?

a) Brent Midland, Pigpen, Vince Wellnick, Keith Godchaux

b) Pigpen, Keith Godchaux, Brent Midland, Vince Wellnick

c) Keith Godchaux, Brent Midland, Vince Wellnick, Pigpen

e) Vince Wellnick, Pigpen, Keith Godchaux, Brent Midland

Correct answer: b

I feel that these are good examples of multiple-choice questions because they do not include in the answer section choices such as, “none of the above,” or “all of the above.” It helps to omit choices like these because these answers do not contribute in measuring students’ mastery of the subject or in teaching unlearned material. These questions both have discriminatory power, allowing me to see who has mastered the material and who hasn’t. The distracters that I selected for these questions are the key ingredients that help me see who has mastered the subject. The distracters are not obvious wrong answers, they are choices that make the students think, which ultimately raises the cognitive level of the test beyond that of just memorization and recall.

I believe that my questions are clear and easily understood. They should not make the student unnecessarily use energy in figuring out exactly what the question is asking. Also in an attempt to make the question as clear as possible I avoided the use of jargon and other complicated terms. I only used words that would be common to their vocabulary. I also avoided using negative test words such as, “not” and “never.” By doing this I made my questions easier to understand. I also tried not to make the right answer too obvious in comparison to my distracters. The last thing that I did to make these questions better was to avoid redundancy by writing and re-writing the questions.

Essay questions are very advantageous because unlike multiple-choice questions they can measure what the students know and have mastered. They allow for students to express, in writing, what they do know about the material for which they are being held accountable.