The in-class essay is not an effective means to assess student ability in a history exam. History teachers should instead ask short-answer questions in order to test what the American Historical Association calls "objective" knowledge: the ability to identify concepts, historical actors, organizations, events, and so forth. Such questions, admittedly, do not measure the analytical and cognitive skills that most historians consider a central goal of humanities education. Nevertheless, factual knowledge tests cultural literacy, which should remain an important part of history teaching. In this article, the author discusses why short-answer questions are better than in-class essays. (Contains 39 notes.)