Multiple-choice testing is a staple within the U.S. higher education system. From classroom assessments to standardized entrance exams such as the GRE, GMAT, or LSAT, test developers utilize a variety of validated and heuristic driven item-writing guidelines. One such guideline that has been given recent attention is to randomize the position of…

Originally designed for students in Grades 3 through 5, MOCCA (formerly the Multiple-choice Online Causal Comprehension Assessment), identifies students who struggle with comprehension, and helps uncover why they struggle. There are many reasons why students might not comprehend what they read. They may struggle with decoding, or reading words…

This study examines how passage availability and reading comprehension question format (open-ended vs. multiple-choice) influence question answering. In two experiments, college undergraduates read an expository passage and answered open-ended and multiple-choice versions of text-based, local, and global bridging inference questions. Half the…

Commercial achievement tests often provide limited instructional guidance and seldom provide feedback specific to any given classroom. The most instructionally relevant achievement tests are those developed by an individual teacher for use with a particular class. This digest describes the steps of test construction and presents suggestions for…

Scores representing number of items right and self-perceptions were analyzed for a nonquantitative examination that was assembled into three forms. Multivariate ANCOVA revealed no significant effects for the cognitive measure. However, significant sex and sex x order effects were found for perceptions scores not parallel to those reported…

This study examined the effect of two ways of question phrasing as related to three styles of expository writing on the test performance of elementary school children. Multiple-choice questions were developed for sets of passages which were written using three different syntactic structures; and which had different levels of difficulty. The…

This article addresses the capacity of high stakes tests to measure the most significant kinds of learning. It begins by examining a set of philosophical arguments pertaining to construct validity and alleged conceptual obstacles to attributing specific knowledge and skills to learners. The arguments invoke philosophical doctrines of holism and…

Latent trait measurement theory was used to investigate the measurement characteristics of both parts of a multiple-choice measure of field-independence, the Finding Embedded Figures Test (FEFT). Analysis was based on data provided by 1,528 students enrolled in one of two middle schools located in the southern United States. Of the subjects, 731…

This report describes courseware for comprehensive computer-assisted testing and instruction. With this program, a personal computer can be used to: (1) generate multiple test versions to meet test objectives; (2) create study guides for self-directed learning; and (3) evaluate student and teacher performance. Numerous multiple-choice examples,…

This book for college faculty provides a resource for developing, using, and grading classroom exams. The first chapter addresses ways to determine what content should be included on an exam. The second chapter identifies testing considerations such as number of exams, difficulty level of items, and test length. Chapters 3 and 4 provide guidelines…