To evaluate the sensitivity of multiple-choice cloze (MCC) tests that use different types of items--syntactic, semantic, and connective--to assess reading ability, 170 English as a foreign language (EFL) students in a vocational college in Taiwan were recruited. The students were divided into two groups (level A and level B) based on their scores…

Even though guessing biases difficulty estimates as a function of item difficulty in the dichotomous Rasch model, assessment programs with tests which include multiple-choice items often construct scales using this model. Research has shown that when all items are multiple-choice, this bias can largely be eliminated. However, many assessments have…

Students (N = 161) in seven sections of an undergraduate educational psychology course rated ten performance-assessment options in collegiate courses. They rated in-class essay exams as their most preferred assessment and multiple-choice exams (in-class and out-of-class) as their least preferred. Also, student ratings of multiple papers and a term…

In the current study, we aimed to develop a reliable and valid scale to address individual cognitive load types. Existing scale development studies involved limited number of items without adequate convergent, discriminant and criterion validity checks. Through a multistep correlational study, we proposed a three-factor scale with 13 items to…

This study investigated Turkish middle school students' proportional reasoning and provided a diagnostic assessment of their strengths and weaknesses on the ratio and proportion concepts. A proportional reasoning test with 22 multiple-choice items was developed from the context of the loglinear cognitive diagnosis model. The test was developed…

Teacher-developed test, in the form of multiple-choice questions has widely used for measuring the students' final learning process. Content validity and items analysis is used to evaluate the quality of the test that is developed by the teacher. The study focused on content validity that analyzed the content of the test and basic competency which…

Cheating detection is an important issue in standardized testing, especially in large-scale settings. Statistical approaches are often computationally intensive and require specialised software to conduct. We present a two-stage approach that quickly filters suspected groups using statistical testing on an IRT-based answer-copying index. We also…

Learning management systems (LMS) allow for a variety of ways in which online multiple-choice assessments ("tests") can be configured, including the ability to allow for multiple attempts and options for which of and how the attempts will count. These options are usually chosen according to the instinct of the instructor; however, LMS…

This article describes an ongoing project to develop a formative, inferential reading comprehension assessment of causal story comprehension. It has three features to enhance classroom use: equated scale scores for progress monitoring within and across grades, a scale score to distinguish among low-scoring students based on patterns of mistakes,…

The current study investigated how item formats and their inherent affordances influence test-takers' cognition under uncertainty. Adult participants solved content-equivalent math items in multiple-selection multiple-choice and four alternative grid formats. The results indicated that participants' affirmative response tendency (i.e., judge the…

Reading comprehension has an important place in lifelong learning. It is an interactive process between the reader and the text. Students need reading comprehension skills at all educational levels and for all school subjects. Determining the level of students' reading comprehension skills is the subject of testing and evaluation. Tests used to…

This article reports a validity study of History Assessments of Thinking (HATs), which are short, constructed-response assessments of historical thinking. In particular, this study focuses on aspects of cognitive validity, which is an examination of whether assessments tap the intended constructs. Think-aloud interviews with 26 high school…

IF-AT (also called answer until correct) is a revised form of traditional multiple-choice testing. It was created to provide instant feedback during testing and to tap into partial knowledge of learners. The purposes of this meta-analytic study were to compare the effectiveness of IF-AT with the traditional multiple-choice test; to assess…

Background: Within undergraduate science courses, instructors often assess student thinking using closed-ended question formats, such as multiple-choice (MC) and multiple-true-false (MTF), where students provide answers with respect to predetermined response options. While MC and MTF questions both consist of a question stem followed by a series…

For many years, question choice has been used in some UK public examinations, with students free to choose which questions they answer from a selection (within certain parameters). There has been little published research on choice of exam questions in recent years in the UK. In this article we distinguish different scenarios in which choice…