Discusses student evaluation in foreign-language courses and argues that passing a multiple-choice test should not be a course objective. Suggests that achieving such an objective does not ensure that students understand the topic or that they will use their new knowledge in new situations, nor that they know how to analyze to the appropriate…

A review of the development and innovation of testing at the higher education level focuses on Ralph Tyler's testing emphasis on the educational process and the objectives of instruction, a precursor to the current trend of integrating formative evaluation into the curriculum development process. (CB)

Literature related to the multiple true-false (MTF) item format is reviewed. Each answer cluster of a MTF item may have several true items and the correctness of each is judged independently. MTF tests appear efficient and reliable, although they are a bit harder than multiple choice items for examinees. (SLD)

The reliabilities of 2-, 3-, 4-, and 5-choice tests were compared through an incremental-option model on a test taken by 154 high school seniors. Creating the test forms incrementally more closely approximates actual test construction. The nonsignificant differences among the option choices support the three-option item. (SLD)

To investigate the ability of multiple-choice tests to assess higher order thinking skills, examinations were constructed as half multiple choice and half constructed response. Results with 90 undergraduate and graduate students indicate that the 2 formats measure similar constructs at different levels of complexity. (SLD)

The recall of information about Hepatitis B demonstrated by 180 seventh graders was tested with three test types: (1) short-answer; (2) true/false; and (3) multiple-choice. Short answer testing was the most reliable. Suggestions are made for the use of short-answer tests in evaluating student knowledge. (SLD)

The effect of different item formats (multiple choice and open) on gender differences in test performance was studied for the Swedish Diagrams, Tables, and Maps (DTM) test with 90 secondary school students. The change to open format resulted in no reduction in gender differences on the DTM. (SLD)

Part I discusses the many benefits of having an item bank of four-option multiple-choice questions for test construction in English language instructional programs. The advantages of the item bank include: increased effectiveness, efficiency, and professionalism among teachers and administrators in test development, design, writing, review, and…

A study examined whether the process of gathering verbal reports of subjects' thinking while taking multiple-choice critical thinking tests could be used to infer the reasoning process used and identify test items which do not require critical thinking skills. Four factors can render an inference of a subject's critical thinking skills…

Difficulty and discrimination ability were compared between multiple choice and short answer items in midterm and final examinations for the internal medicine course at Louisiana State University School of Dentistry. The examinations were administered to 67 sophomore dental students in that course. Additionally, the impact of the source of the…

The effectiveness of a strategy for improving performance on multiple-choice items for examinees was assessed using an aptitude-treatment interaction model. Results showed that for low-anxious examinees, generation of an answer before selecting a response led to higher performance, but not for highly anxious examinees. (Author/JAZ)

A study conducted at the Universities of Haifa and Tel-Aviv to compare two approaches to constructing general multiple choice ability tests--the "classic distractor" test and a new technique, the "fixed-distractor" format test--found a strong similarity between the scores on the two general information ability tests. Seven…

This study tested the hypothesis that the common approach to test construction in which recognition questions (RQs), such as multiple-choice items, are followed by constructed response questions (CRQs) encourages students to use the informationally rich RQs to gain marks on the CRQs, thus introducing Local Item Dependence (LID) and inflating the…

The process proposed for the development and use of computer-based testing, including simulation and multiple-choice questions, as part of the National Board of Medical Examiners' certification sequence is outlined. Summary reports of first-phase pilot testing in six medical schools are appended. (MSE)

Describes a case study to determine whether performance tests are a feasible alternative to multiple-choice tests. Examines the difficulties of administering and scoring performance assessments. Explains that the study employed three performance tests and one multiple-choice test. Concludes that performance test administration and scoring was no…