The Basics of MCQs

Choosing MCQs

There are a lot of ways to assess student learning: essays, presentations, projects, collaborations, quizzes, demonstrations, and more. All these approaches allow opportunities for students to demonstrate what they have learned, one of the keys to effective instruction. 

Few people are really excited about MCQs, and often, they feel resigned to using MCQs rather than the format being their first choice (Parkes and Zimmaro). But the fact is that there are many benefits for choosing MCQs as an assessment method, including:

  • large amount of research into the practice and well-documented approaches to classroom application
  • ease of administration 
  • quick grading that allows fast student feedback
  • effective online application
  • ability to measure higher-order thinking, not just basic comprehension

 

The Elements of MCQs

The following image comes from Parkes and Zimmaro's book Learning and Assessing with Multiple-Choice Questions in College Classrooms, available for checkout at the TLC. It identifies the stem (the question), the options (the choices), the key (correct option) and distractors (incorrect options). 

List of the elements of a multiple-choice question

There are some variations to the most straightforward item - the direct question - used in the above example. Those include:

  • Matching
  • Binary Choice Items/Two answers, or T/F
  • Correct Answer vs. Best Answer Variations
  • Analysis of Visuals or Context-Dependent Item Sets (Charts, Graphs, Tables, Ex.)
  • Scenario or Vignette-Based MCQs

Keep in mind that your distractors are not "tricks" - they serve a real purpose in measuring student learning. Using common student misunderstandings or misconceptions about a topic is not "playing dirty." If your goal is to measure student learning, then having plausible distractors helps you collect valid information. 

The next page, "Strategies for Improving MCQs," has details about how to write the best stems, arrange your options, and avoiding curing the test taker about the key. Take a look for more information. 

 

Teaching Strategies with MCQs

If you use MCQs frequently, consider how to approach teaching these particular assessments. 

Before the Exam

1. Use the “no surprises” approach - prepare students with appropriate information about the exam coverage, process, and format

2. Add formative assessment - provide opportunities to get feedback and adjust learning

Formative Assessment loop of teaching and instruction, moving into assessment of that learning, and wrapping around to feedback

 

3. Study strategies - teach test-taking strategies that work better than guessin

4. Provide opportunities to practice - like having students write test questions, reviewing chapter summaries, creating ungraded practice quizzes in Canvas

5. Create a test blueprint - ensure that your assessment covers the intended material by mapping it out on a test blueprint; the examples below show charts that allow faculty to see an overview of the info covered on the exam in a clear, concise manner; the second exam also includes coverage of the kinds of thinking assess as well:

Example of a test blueprint that maps different learning assessed on the exam

Source: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Test-blueprint-used-to-build-test-forms-Notes-The-above-mentioned-organ-systems-by_fig1_44642427 Links to an external site.

 

Another example of a test bluepring

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxVQbjUDrrc

After the Exam

Learning can still take place after the exam is finished. Help students wrap up their learning experience by using strategies like these:

  • Mastery opportunities - an activity that require students to explain correct answers of missed items (possibly for additional credit or possibly in teams) allows for learning the concepts that the test was intended to measure
  • Exam activities - devote some class time or homework energy to covering info that the students missed on the exam
    • assign homework for items that 40% or more of the class missed
    • assign questions to discover source of error (for credit or for partial exam credit)

      • What lectures did the information come from?

      • Why is the right answer correct?

      • Why are the wrong answers incorrect?

      • Why did I answer the question incorrectly? Or, why might my classmates have answered the question incorrectly?
  • Reflection questions - increase student metacognition by providing an opportunity to reflect on their learning
      • “Predict Your Grade” reflections - before test is returned, ask students to estimate their grades. After test is returned, ask them to explain why they were higher or lower than expected. 
      • Test preparation reflections - ask students to track their exam prep hours and types of study strategies, then rate them after their exams are available. 
  • Exam wrappers - assignments that ask students to take a look at their preparation and plan for different/improved study habits for the future exam can build self efficacy and increase connections between effort and performance that fights impostor syndrome; consider questions like: 
    • How did students prepare for exam?
    • What kinds of errors did they make on the exam?
    • How should they prepare for the next exam?

 

Resources

Here are some of the resources used for this module. 

Parkes, Jay  and Dawn Zimmaro. Learning and Assessing with Multiple-Choice Questions in College Classrooms. New York: Routledge, 2016. (Available through the TLC)

Haladyna et al. “A Review of Multiple-Choice Item-Writing Guidelines for Classroom Assessment (Links to an external site.).”  Applied Measurement in Education, 15(3), 309–334, 2002.

Brame, C., (2013) Writing good multiple choice test questions. Retrieved May 4 2020 from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/writing-good-multiple-choice-test-questions/ (Links to an external site.).

McGill Teaching and Learning https://www.mcgill.ca/skillsets/files/skillsets/mcq_handout3.pdf