Despite the popularity of both multiple-choice (MC) and true-false (TF) items, most investigations comparing the two formats have done so to determine the optimum number of choices to be given to students within a given time period. The purpose of this investigation was to compare the reliabilities and the validities of both formats when the items…

The purpose of this study was to compare the reliabilities of two-, three-, four-, and five-choice tests using an incremental option paradigm. Test forms were created incrementally, a method approximating actual test construction procedures. Participants were 154 12th-grade students from the Portland (Oregon) area. A 45-item test with two options…

Reliability and validity of multiple-choice examinations as a function of the number of options per item and of student ability were computed for 435 junior class parochial high school students in the tri-county area of Portland (Oregon). The verbal section of the Washington Pre-College Test Battery was used. The least discriminating options were…