I just created my very first multiple – choice test. Of course, I hate multiple choice tests but I don’t want to die without having had the experience of creating and administering one. I need to know what it is I hate, don’t I?
So far the experience has been bizarre. I have felt like a total idiot making the test. But it’s a new experience, and that is already valuable.
I can’t even imagine what a multiple choice test for foreign language skill would be like!
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This isn’t a language course. I only teach language courses sometimes. This is a test on the Spanish Civil War.
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In physics, multiple choice tests are considered very virtuous.
I have no clue why. But there is a well-funded community that pushes this nonsense.
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This is a sad day. 😦
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I’m not defecting to the dark side! 🙂 I’m just gathering data to demonstrate that the practice is wrong.
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I read a science fiction story some years ago in which all education was online, and all tests were multiple choice. Within a few years, no one was able to deal with anything unexpected at all.
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Oh, this multiple choice exam will be VERY unexpected. People will wake up from horrible nightmares after this multiple choice test. They will not be able to hear the words “multiple choice” without breaking into a cold sweat.
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I am very, very interested to know how you will manage to come up with a good multiple-choice test. 14 years teaching and I have never designed one.
Very interested. Because yes, a machine can grade them for you.
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There are only 24 students in the course, so I won’t need a machine. But it will be very very painful. (Evil laugh.)
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A conservative literary critic and college professor
Clarissa's Blog 
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