Since my students will have to take a multiple choice licensing exam upon completion of their program, I most often use multiple choice questions on tests that I give. My hope is to simulate the type of questions they will see later.
Hi Charmaine- Thanks for your post to the forum. What other types of assessments are you using - T/f , multipile choice, short answer? Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
Many of the courses that I teach have test banks that are supplied with the material so some of my options are limited. Because my classes are medical based I also use diagram labeling.
I create a test that contains and varity of different types of test. I do that so I can make sure that my students get and understand the material.
I always gear my tests based on the lecture. Additionally, I usually combine sentence completion sections for further student assessment.
When I test I use certain testing for individual chapters, depending if it is facts chapter , ect.
Hi George - Thanks for your post to the forum. Your choices of assessment are well taken! Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
I use multiple choice, true or false and matching mostly because I feel that for the subject I teach students either know it or they dont. These formats are usually pretty straight forward and if the student understands the material it should be a no brainer. I don't like using questions that trick the students too much (I don't teach critical thinking) and although critical thinking is important, my goal is to confirm that the student understands the topic.
I look at the subject, the details I am testing for, the students being tested, and the amount of time allocated for the test.
I use the content of the information and what is important for the student to know. The level of difficulty in understanding the information, its' depth and how difficult it is to realize the concept. Also, student responses during the class teaching. If they are readily participating and seem to have a handle on the subject matter I lean to essay, if they seem to have peaks and valleys during lecture the multiple choice to guage the struggles.
following assessment of the student's enrolled; test determination style is chosen
I use multiple choice, true/false test formats because they are easy to grade and I feel give my students an excellent opprtunity to demonstrate their recognition and recall of the subject matter.
I usually write tests with all types of question formats. I encourge students to think deeper then only MC. I generally always have short answer and essay/case studies on them to encourage critcal thinking.
I have to consider the wide vary on student ages and learning abilities. I also so have to take into account the amount of time we have to devote to any one subject area. I mainly like to use the standardized tests provided by the text book editors.
our format is the true false multiple choice. students usually do not have much trouble with these tests. they make the students pay a little more attention in class
Not on the test I just gave my students. They guessed rather than put effort into the calculations, lucky for me there isn't much math in the courses I teach
I try mixing them up. I use fill-in with word banks as pop quiz to access whether students are reading, True false as a hand out for in class. I correct them and ask them to make false questions true. Multiple choice and matching for chapter Quizzes and exams. Sometimes short answer/essay but time and the volume of material has kept me from using that format.
I believe it depends on the type of material you are covering in that class. As a pharmacy tech, our national cert. is strictly multiple choice. We tend to format our test heavy on the multiple choice side due to this.
I try to use a variety of types of questions on each test. I use multiple choice, true/false, matching, completion, and short answer. I try to use the type of question that works best with the type of material I am testing. I have found that different students prefer and peform better on different types of question as well. I try to be fair and provide a variety so that each student can succeed on at least some of the questions.
I love essay formats because I see what the student actually knows about the subject, whereas multiple choice and true and false are often just guessed. One criteria why I am not selecting essay formats often is, to be honest, they need so much time to grade and I have found that students argue over their answers after grading. If they talk around a lot but do not really answer the question, they argue that they have written so much and know all that information. They compare grades to others who have written less but were straight to the point answering the question.
