[MATHEDCC] Multiple Choice--Pros and Con

The Old Pro (jgajniak@IX.NETCOM.COM)
Tue, 29 Jul 1997 18:45:42 -0700

Regarding Multiple Choice:

With over 150 students papers to grade, and giving

quizzes/tests several times per week, I think multiple

choice, true-false, and two-column matching is a

real sensible way to administer tests. Especially, if

the questions and possible answer choices are given to the students scrambled.

The bright kids score consistently high; and the not-so

bright kids score consistently low. So I don't see what is to gain by not using mutiple choice testing.

Further, very, very simple questions can be constructed

using the multiple choice format and oftentimes several of the

students' selecting the same wrong answer lets me

know of the more common students' erroneous assumptions/thoughts/thinking.

As for the speed and ease of grading with the Scantron reader, there just is no better way!

I'll take Multiple Choice any day!

The Old Pro

<italic>The Old Pro

http://pw1.netcom.com/~jgajniak/teacher.html

Math Teacher

Los Angeles, California

</italic>
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