The table below presents both pros and cons for various test item types.

Your selection of item types should be based on the types of outcomes you are trying to assess (see analysis of your learning situation). Certain item types such as true/false, supplied response, and matching, work well for assessing lower-order outcomes (i.e., knowledge or comprehension goals), while other item types such as essays, performance assessments, and some multiple choice questions, are better for assessing higher-order outcomes (i.e., analysis, synthesis, or evaluation goals). The italicized bullets below will help you determine the types of outcomes the various items assess. With your objectives in hand, it may be useful to create a test blueprint that specifies your outcomes and the types of items you plan to use to assess those outcomes. Further, test items are often weighted by difficulty. On your test blueprint, you may wish to assign lower point values to items that assess lower-order skills (knowledge, comprehension) and higher point values to items that assess higher-order skills (synthesis, evaluation). Item Type Multiple Choice (see tips for writing multiple choice questions below) Pros more answer options (4-5) reduce the chance of guessing that an item is correct many items can aid in student comparison and reduce ambiguity greatest flexibility in type of outcome assessed: knowledge goals, application goals, analysis goals, etc. can present many items at once easy to score used to assess popular misconceptions, cause-effect reactions Cons reading time increased with more answers reduces the number of questions that can be presented difficult to write four or five reasonable choices takes more time to write questions

True/False (see tips for writing true/false questions below)

most difficult question to write objectively ambiguous terms can confuse many few answer options (2) increase the chance of guessing that an item is correct; need many items to overcome this effect difficult to assess higherorder outcomes (i.e., analysis, synthesis, evaluation goals)

Matching

efficient used to assess student understanding of associations, relationships, definitions a variation on multiple choice, true/false, or matching, the interpretive exercise presents a new map, short reading, or other

Interpretive Exercise (the above three item types are often criticized

hard to design, must locate appropriate introductory material students with good reading skills are often at an

for assessing only lower-order skills; the interpretive exercise is a way to assess higherorder skills w/ multiple choice, T/F, and matching items) Supplied Response

introductory material that the student must analyze tests student ability to apply and transfer prior knowledge to new material useful for assessing higherorder skills such as applications, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation chances of guessing reduced measures knowledge and fact outcomes well, terminology, formulas less construction time, easier to write encourages more appropriate study habits measures higher-order outcomes (i.e., analysis, synthesis, or evaluation goals), creative thinking, writing ability

advantage

scoring is not objective can cause difficulty for computer scoring

Essay

more grading time, hard to score can yield great variety of responses not efficient to test large bodies of content if you give the student the choice of three or four essay options, you can find out what they know, but not what they don't know labor and time-intensive need to obtain inter-rater reliability when using more than one rater

Performance Assessments (includes essays above, along with speeches, demonstrations, presentations, etc.)

measures higher-order outcomes (i.e., analysis, synthesis, or evaluation goals)

The table below presents tips for designing two popular item types: multiple choice questions and true/false questions. Tips for Writing Multiple Choice Questions Avoid responses that are interrelated. One answer should not be similar to others. Avoid negatively stated items: "Which of the following is not a method of food irradiation?" It is easy to miss Tips for Writing True/False Questions Do not use definitive words such as "only," "none," and "always," that lead people to choose false, or uncertain words such as "might," "can," or "may," that lead people to choose true.

the the negative word "not." If you use negatives, bold-face the negative qualifier to ensure people see it. Avoid making your correct response different from the other responses, grammatically, in length, or otherwise. Avoid the use of "none of the above." When a students guesses "none of the above," you still do not know if they know the correct answer. Avoid repeating words in the question stem in your responses. For example, if you use the word "purpose" in the question stem, do not use that same word in only one of the answers, as it will lead people to select that specific response. Use plausible, realistic responses. Create grammatically parallel items to avoid giving away the correct response. For example, if you have four responses, do not start three of them with verbs and one of them with a noun. Always place the "term" in your question stem and the "definition" as one of the response options.

Do not write negatively stated items, as they are confusing to interpret: "Thomas Jefferson did not write the Declaration of Independence." True or False? People have a tendency to choose "true," so design at least 60% of your T/F items to be "false" to further minimize guessing effects. Use precise words (100, 20%, half), rather than vague or qualitative language (young, small, many). Avoid making the correct answer longer than the incorrect answer (a give-away).

http://www.edtech.vt.edu/edtech/id/assess/items.html