The Ins and Outs of Objective Testing

1. Mark B. Kristal Professor Department of Psychology The Ins and Outs of Objective Testing

2. Objective Testing • Central Issues • when is it appropriate • different types • advantages • disadvantages • difficulty of items • item construction

3. Objective Testing • Related Issues • security • grading • feedback • make-ups • cumulative vs non-cumulative tests

4. Objective Testing When appropriate? class size time before or after test

5. Objective Testing test prepare grade Essay Objective

6. Objective Testing • Multiple Choice (recognition)The colors of the American flag are: a) red, green, white b) red, blue, white c) blue, yellow, white d) orange, green, white

7. Objective Testing • Multiple Choice (recognition)The colors of the American flag are: a) red, green, whiteb) red, blue, white c) blue, yellow, white d) orange, green, white

8. Objective Testing • Fill-in (recall) The colors of the American flag are red, blue, and ________ ?

9. Objective Testing • True-false (recognition)T F The colors of the American flag are red, blue, and green.

10. Objective Testing • Match (recognition)a. Italy ___ red, white, blue b. Venezuela ___ red, white, greenc. US ___ red, blue, yellow

11. Objective Testing • List (recall)Name 3 countries that use three horizontal stripes on their flag. 1. 2. 3.

12. Objective Testing • Advantages • easily and reliably graded • easy to quantify and analyze results • can test concepts as well as details • can be graded by assistants or computer • feedback gets to students quickly

13. Objective Testing • Disadvantages • security problems • difficult to test writing ability or • ability to generate complex ideas

14. Objective Testing • Difficulty of Items and Test Items should not be all hard or all easy, but should be of all degrees of difficulty. Try to avoid items that are too hard or too easy. Hard items should correlate well with an overall high score on the test.

15. Objective Testing • Difficulty of Items and Test • Objective tests are not inherently easier • than essay tests. • Some students have more trouble with ob- • jective tests than they do with essay tests. • Prep all the students on strategies for • taking objective tests before the first • test (e.g., read the test through first, • don’t go back and change answers).

16. Objective Testing • Difficulty of Items and Testnormal curve

17. Objective Testing • Difficulty of Items and Test

18. Objective Testing • General Guidelines • items should reflect significant issues, not trivial or esoteric pointsPoints that may seem trivial, however, can tap into a deeper understanding of the material. Be prepared to explain this to students.

19. Objective Testing • Testing knowledge of “dualism”

20. Objective Testing • Trivial: • Greek philosophers were _____________ in their analysis of the source of behavior. A) monistic B) dualistic C) sophistic D) extrinsic

21. Objective Testing • Not Trivial: • Greek philosophers were dualistic in their analysis of the source of behavior, believing that the mind was A) a separate unrelated entity, existing in parallel with the body. B) an emergent property of the body. C) the only reality, that the body did not exist. D) separate from the body, governed by spiritual rather than physical laws.

22. Objective Testing • General Guidelines Make sure test items are independent of one another. Test items should not give away answers to other test items.

23. Objective Testing • 1. The functional relationship between an axonal bouton and a dendrite is called a(n) ______________. • 14. As soon as a neurotransmitter is released from the axonal bouton into the synapse, a(n) ____________ from the dendritic membrane breaks it down. A) enzyme B) receptor C) nucleus D) hormone

24. Objective Testing Multiple - Choice Tests

25. Objective Testing • General Rules for Item Construction

26. Objective Testing • General Rules for Item Construction • Where to find test items? Test-item files are not necessarily good - choose these items carefully

27. Objective Testing • General Rules for Item Construction • Where to find good distractors(wrong answers) students’ wrong answers (from fill-ins) can often be used

28. Objective Testing • General Rules for Item Construction • What not to use for distractors

29. Objective Testing • General Rules for Item Construction • What not to use for distractors throw-away items

30. Objective Testing • The colors of the American flag are: a) red, green, white b) red, blue, white c) puce, lavender, fuscia d) blue, yellow, white

31. Objective Testing • General Rules for Item Construction • What not to use for distractors items that do not match grammatically

32. Objective Testing • The science of physics, as it developed after 1900, had the effect of a) reinforce Newtonian physics b) present a universe of an uncertain nature c) offering sound evidence supporting traditional concepts of matter d) clarify the nature of the universe

33. Objective Testing • General Rules for Item Construction • What not to use for distractors items of a different degree of detail from the correct answer

34. Objective Testing • De-Stalinization of the Soviet Union’s politics and policies brought a) complete freedom b) limited liberty under the still-dominant communist party c) complete secrecy d) no change

35. Objective Testing • General Rules for Item Construction • What not to use for distractors trick items

36. Objective Testing • Which of the following was a Balkan state before 1914? a) Romany b) Hungary c) Serbia d) Lower Slobovia

37. Objective Testing • The study of fish is called: a) Icktheology b) Pisceology c) Ichtheology d) Ichthyology

38. Objective Testing • General Rules for Item Construction • What not to use for distractors items that only test vocabulary

39. Objective Testing • Groups of cell bodies in the central nervous system are called a) nuclei b) somas c) aggregates d) ganglia e) neurons

40. Objective Testing • General Rules for Item Construction • For measuring understanding, require the student to predict the outcome of a situation, rather than just label the phenomenon.

41. Objective Testing • According to the theory of Mercantilism, the colonies would a) drain England’s prosperity and should be set free. b) be treated as different economic entities. c) develop profitable trading relationships with non-English markets. d) act as sources of raw materials and provide a market for England’s manufactured goods.

42. Objective Testing • Drug ‘X’ has been found and characterized as a cholinergic agonist. This means that a) Drug ‘X’ is recognized by and binds to cholinergic receptors, but does not produce a secondary cell response. b) Drug ‘X’ is recognized by and binds to cholinergic receptors and produces the appropriate secondary cell response. c) Drug ‘X’ is taken into the presynaptic cell and decreases neurotransmitter synthesis. d) Drug ‘X’ is recognized by the presynaptic autoreceptors and decreases neurotransmitter release.

43. Objective Testing • General Rules for Item Construction • Don’t use language or jargon that is inappropriate or irrelevant for the material being tested.

44. Objective Testing • Which concept is a sine qua non for democracy? a) the right to vote b) political parties c) a bicameral legislature d) the executive branch of government

45. Objective Testing • General Rules for Item Construction • Stating the problem There must be a single central problem. The problem should be stated accurately. The problem should be stated briefly, but completely.

46. Objective Testing • What is being asked? • Is the highest mountain in North America Mt. McKinley in Alaska, about 4 or 5 miles high. ___________________

47. Objective Testing • The Jeopardy-type question:The maternal grandparents of Queen Mary I of England was this couple who underwrote Columbus’s 1492 voyage: a) Ferdinand & Isabella b) Henry VIII & Catheryn Paar c) Victoria & Albert d) Henry II & Eleanor of Aquitaine

48. Objective Testing • General Rules for Item Construction • the answers should be unquestionably right • the position of the right answers should be scattered randomly • answers should be listed in chronological, alphabetical, or numerical order when they belong in a series

49. Objective Testing • General Rules for Item Construction • try not to use “always” and “never”, since these usually disqualify the distractor immediately • “all of the above” is not as good as “none of the above” because if student notices that two answers seem correct, it increases the probability that it is “all of the above”

50. Objective Testing • General Rules for Item Construction • questions should usually be stated in the positive, not the negative. Even good students can fail to see the word “not”.