Multiple Choice and Short Answers
I use both methods of evaluation in addition to requiring group work in the course because it gives students the most opportunities for success. My goal is to find ways to help students succeed and build their confidence that they can master the subject material.
Multiple choice test work fine but one problem that I see is the use of an A or B situation. It is not a problem if person A says it is blue and B says it is pink and the answer is clearly A or B. But when the person A or B question is about a different subject it isnt fair to the student. Example.. Person A says its blue and person A says a car has tires who is correct. Thats just throwing an extra question into the test. This is a very common practice in the automotive training and ASE testing procedures that I find unfair.
Multiple choice tests are nice for A&P; however, I feel it's also important for other methods of testing in the physiology portion to understand function.
i prefer to give more of multiple choice questions as most of the board exams have these type of questions. I would be training them for that by giving them more and more of multiple choice questions and aslo time them.
I agree that is depends on the class you are teaching as to what type of test is the most appropriate to use. I often am using multiple choice and true/false tests and this seems to work out the best. If students has a test that they have to fill in the blanks they often do not do as well as with the multiple choice tests.
Susan Sandmann
Hi Kathleen - Thanks for your post to the forum. I agree that using varied assessment types is beneficial. Best wishes for continued success in your teaching career. Susan
Some classes lend themselves to multiple choice tests (A & P especially) but other classes require more of an explaination, like short answer or essay. I like to change-up the testing to keep my students fresh.
I also prefer multiple choice tests. I feel that the students get a better understanding of what they have learned due to having to work out which answer works best for the question. My students also seem to like them best also.
