The Use of Multiple Choice Questions with Explanations for Economic Assessment

Abstract

Dissatisfaction with the use of multiple choice tests as a means of evaluating the comprehension of students led to experimentation with a hybrid form that combined multiple choice questions with written explanations for why the particular answer was chosen. A comparison of the multiple choice component of such tests with the written component shows not only a poor correlation between the two sets of results but what was more disturbing, a poor rank correlation. Combining the two forms of assessment was shown to be not only a more accurate means of judging the understanding of students but allowed tests to be set in ways which probed far more deeply into student abilities.

JEL Classification: A20, A21, A22