MCQs versus Open-ended questions

crimson soldier SG

What do you make of MCQs? Are they accurate in accessing a student? If they are, do you think they are effective at lower levels, higher levels or what?

I think it's pretty interesting when people score below 25% for MCQ tests that allow 4 options or 20% for tests with 5 options. Because it means that a drunkard throwing a 4-sided dice or a 5-sided dice would score better than them. What does it really mean when, well, you score lower than you could have if you randomly guessed.

dkcx SG

Personally i prefer open-ended questions since they are easier to crap and you can just throw in whatever you know in hope of some marks. MCQ are know it or dunno it type of questions and sometimes questions can be so tricky that more than 1 answer seems right to you especially if your grasp of that topic is not very strong.

MarkNKL SG

post deleted

crimson soldier SG

Yah it seems that open-ended questions are more lenient towards the marks than MCQs.

wee_ws SG

Hi,

There are MCQs which are hard to make a choice.

E.g. Consider the four statements I, II, III, IV.

Choose the correct option:

A. All statements are true.

B. All statements are false.

C. Only I and II are true.

D. Only III and IV are true.

E. Only II and III are false.

For open-ended questions, there is usually a marking criterion, so there is still a boundary for responses that are reasonably-acceptable by convention. Take project work for instance.

Thanks!

Cheers,
Wen Shih

dkcx SG

I hate those questions with choices.

Open-ended got marking criterion but if the marker is good, he/she will try to understand what you write and see whether it can link or not while some will just blindly look for keywords and won't give you marks if they don't see what they want.

MaNyZeR SG

wait till you got an exam which is MCQ and every wrong answers will have 1 correct answer removed. And this is only part A. Part B will be open ended ESSAYS (not questions)...

This is the ultimate combo for an exam.

Another one that I did was mcq, short answers questions, fill in the blank and essay all lump into one.

Both have their advantage and disadvantages.. But I would say if ya really want to score well and out perform others, then choose open ended questions because it removes the luck factors.

As for ya question if you have people that score less than 20% (5 choices) or 25% (4 choices) that means that they never study and tikam all the way.... or simply their luck on that day sucks.

Bang Bang!!!

crimson soldier SG

even tikam also should score 20% (5 choices mah). That day just had a mcq test with 30 questions (5 options)...someone sucidal scored 2. University leh

that person should have ticked all As or all Ds...probably more marks lol

airgrinder SG

Anyone taken GMAT or GRE? Marks will be deducted for wrong answers, plus questions with different level of difficult may only be worth the same marks, yet u cannot skip any questions and come back to it later. Once answered, it's done.

Anyway, for administraters' point of view, MCQs are much more effective and cost efficient. Wrong is wrong, right is right, right is not wrong, wrong cannot be right.

In the epitome of a "best" examination paper, testers try to set questions that test subject knowledge and only that subject knowledge. No additional know-how out that subject should be require to correctly and adequately answer the questions. Any testers will know this is almost next to impossible. A very basic example will be the examinees' grasp of the language medium.This means that while it is generally easier to "crap" and score for essay question, the examinee's ability to communicate becomes relatively more significant. For weaker communicators, they might not be able to put fore their points clearly. On top of that, there is also the factor of the marker's mental awareness and emtions. Once the marker succumbs to the Z Monster or got irritated, the level of fairness in between scripts could vacillate.