Multiple Choice

WRITING OBJECTIVES
Test Items
MULTIPLE CHOICES
ELS 135
BY MARY ROSE RECIBE
Description
MULTIPLE CHOICE TEST
• This test type is the most frequently
used tool to measure student
achievement at different levels of
learning.
• It is a form of assessment in which

students are required to choose the
best or most appropriate answer from a
list of options.
Description
• It is appropriate for many subject-
matter areas and can be used to
measure various educational
objectives.
• They are adaptable to various levels

of learning outcomes, from simple
recall of knowledge to more complex
levels.
It consists of 2 parts:
• Stem – represents the problem or question
usually expressed either in a question or
an incomplete statement.
• Alternatives – these are all the options that

contain one correct/best alternative
answer and a number of incorrect or bad
alternative (distractors) answers given.
The purpose of the distractors is to appear as plausible solutions to the problem
for those students who have not achieved the objective being measured by the test
item.
Example
DECIDING WHEN MULTIPLE-CHOICE
ITEMS SHOULD BE USED
The type of test item used in the assessment must be
appropriate to attain the objective. Although multiple-
choice test items are frequently advantageous to use,
they are not always the greatest type of test item.
• In general, they are appropriate to use when the

attainment of the educational objective can be
measured by having the student select his or her
response from a list of several alternative
responses.
Measuring Higher-Level Objectives with Multiple-Choice
Items
One of the misconceptions about Multiple Choice tests is

that it is believed these items are only good for measuring
simple recall of facts. Although, the real value of multiple-
choice items, however, is their applicability in measuring
higher-level objectives, such as those based on
comprehension, application, and analysis.
Comprehension
Application
Objective: Identifies the correct application of principle
(problem solving).
Analysis
Guidelines
Construct each item to assess a single written objective.
• Items that are not written with a specific objective in mind often end
up measuring lower-level objectives exclusively, or covering trivial
material that is of little educational worth.
Base each item on a specific problem stated clearly in the stem.
• After reading the question, the student should know exactly what the
problem is and what he or she is expected to do to solve it.
• If the student has to guess what the problem is, the item will likely
measure the student’s ability to draw inferences from vague
descriptions rather than the achievement of an objective.
Include as much of the item as possible in the stem, but do not include
irrelevant material.
• Rather than repeating redundant words or phrases in each of the
alternatives, place such material in the stem to decrease the reading
burden and more clearly define the problem in the stem.
Word the alternatives clearly and concisely
• Clear wording reduces student confusion, and concise wording
reduces the reading burden placed on the student.
The alternatives in the poor example are rather wordy and may require more than one
reading before the student understands them clearly compared to this one where it have
been simplified to increase clarity without losing accuracy
Keep the alternatives mutually exclusive (Include one best answer in each item)
• Alternatives that overlap create undesirable situations. Some may be
easily identified as distractors. But if the overlap includes the intended
answer, there may be more than one option that can be successfully
defended as being the answer.
• Responding to this becomes a frustrating game of determining what the
teacher had in mind when he or she wrote the item.
• Such ambiguity is particularly a problem with items of the best answer
variety, where more than one alternative may be correct, but only one
alternative should be clearly best.
Keep the alternatives free from clues as to which response is correct.
• Poorly written items often contain clues that help students who do not
know the correct answer eliminate incorrect alternatives and increase
their chance of guessing correctly.
• Such items tend to measure how clever the students are at finding
the clues rather than how well they have attained the objective being
measured.
Avoid the alternatives “all of the above” and “none of the above” (in general).
• These two alternatives are frequently used when the teacher writing
the item has trouble coming up with a sufficient number of distractors.
Such teachers emphasize the quantity of distractors over quality.
Avoid the alternatives “all of the above” and “none of the above” (in general).
• Unfortunately, the use of either of these alternatives tends to reduce
the effectiveness of the item, as illustrated in the table:
Analyze the effectiveness of each item after each administration of the test.
• Analyzing items is an excellent way to periodically check the
effectiveness of your test items. It identifies items that are not
functioning well, thus enabling you to revise the items, remove them
from your test, or revise your instruction, whichever is appropriate.
Activity
Instruction: Choose the letter of the correct answer.
1. Our body posture, gestures, and eye gaze are examples of ________ .
A. signals
B. nonverbal communication
C. verbal communication
D. computer-mediated communication
2. What is the term for the smallest meaningful unit of sound in a language?
A. morpheme
B. semantics
C. syntax
D. phoneme
3. What is the systematic rule that helps speakers understand how to combine words and
convey meaning?
A. semantic
B. symbol
C. grammar
D. syntax
4. Some words can have more than one meaning. For example, "crash" can refer to an auto
accident or a decline in the stock market. What does this relate to?
A. semantics
B. grammar
C. signal
D. syntax
5. The process by which children are socialized both through and to use language within a
community relates to:
A. enculturation
B. assimilation
C. accommodation
D. language socialization
6. Skinner argued that children would be likely to repeat sounds if they were followed by a
pleasurable response. This viewpoint has its foundation in:
A. the language acquisition device
B. the nativist theory
C. operant conditioning
D. observational learning
7. Crying, cooing, and babbling are all examples of which stage of language development?
A. pre-linguistic
B. linguistic
C. referential
D. expressive
8. You have an interest in studying topics such as code-mixing, code-switching, children’s

language, and secret languages. Which of the following disciplines studies these topics?
A. sociolinguistics
B. sociology
C. anthropology
D. cultural psychology
9. Language socialization functions to teach children all of the following EXCEPT:
A. knowledge about cultural practices
B. knowledge about cultural norms
C. knowledge about mind in culture
D. knowledge about speech production
10. Isabella is fluent in six different languages. Her language ability makes her a
A. bilingual speaker
B. linguist
C. monolingual speaker
D. polyglot
Answers:
1. b 6. c
2. d 7. a
3. c 8. a
4. a 9. c
5. d 10. d
Thank You
References:
• https://testing.byu.edu/handbooks/betteritems.pdf
• https://www.slideshare.net/lorne27/msc5report
• https://global.oup.com/us/companion.websites/9780199343805/bank/ch5/
mcq/

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WRITING OBJECTIVES

• It is a form of assessment in which

• They are adaptable to various levels

• Alternatives – these are all the options that

• In general, they are appropriate to use when the

One of the misconceptions about Multiple Choice tests is

8. You have an interest in studying topics such as code-mixing, code-switching, children’s

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