Junior economics and finance major
“Choices ‘B’ and ‘D’ seem to be the same! So it must be ‘E?’ When in doubt, guess ‘C.’ It couldn’t possibly be ‘A.’” This type of dialogue is universal among American students any time they are taking a test or a quiz. And too often, it is the voice in the minds of Terps, where “fearless ideas” and “quantum advances” are sometimes replaced with “Scantron angst.”
Multiple choice tests have a time and place, particularly in the largest of lecture halls, where their ruthless efficiency is needed. But unless professors create these tests with the utmost care and precision, they should not be used.
If technical knowledge and skills form the basis of a course, then guessing bubbles isn’t the best way to demonstrate that. Those skills should be demonstrated in practice. If a certain perspective on the world is the main idea, a well-constructed written response is appropriate.
Language and math classes generally avoid the multiple choice trap, but too many other classes rely on the bubble. If a professor can’t find another way to assess knowledge in other ways, then it probably isn’t a class that will be useful to students in the long run.
Even if multiple choice is appropriate to use in a certain case, the development of the questions is very important. Major nationwide tests, such as the SAT and GRE, are made by teams of teachers, professors and doctorate holders, who ensure that each question is clear, concise, fair and valid. Even then, these tests are frequently criticized for favoring certain groups or covering irrelevant material.
If multiple choice questions are informally written, these problems are worsened. If a single professor is creating questions, the wording might make sense in his or her mind, but be confusing to others.
Additionally, certain questions could be easy for most students but hard for others. This could lead to a grade distribution that approaches a targeted average, which appears desirable but is really due to chance because of the nature of multiple choice.
A free-response prompt could have a wide variety of relevant answers. This allows a student to spill all the knowledge that he or she has onto the page, rather than getting caught off-guard by a random detail that a multiple choice question asks for.
While it is true that free response can result in ambiguity about the correctness of an answer, the possibility for partial credit makes it better than the all-or-nothing nature of multiple choice. The feedback given when grading free response questions helps point students toward learning the exact material they might have missed. While free response might cause students to discuss or debate answers with faculty, this dialogue contributes to the learning process.
To some extent, college education intends to prepare students for the real world and future careers. Imagine a surgeon guessing on a multiple choice question when removing a patient’s organ. Careers and life don’t always present a set of clear options the way multiple choice tests do. If this university really wants to promote “fearless ideas,” they will remove multiple choice tests whenever it is possible to do so.
Daniel Galitsky is a junior economics and finance major. He can be reached at dgalitskydbk@gmail.com.
