Assessment (Advantages and Disadvantages)

Multiple Choice

The advantages and disadvantages

a. Advantages of Multiple Choice

Multiple choice has many advantages. One of them is its practicallity. It can be easily and quickly scored. “By far the most popular method of testing a reading knowledge of vocabulary and grammar is the multiple choice format, mainly for reasons of practicality. It is easy to administer and can be scored quickly. The most straightforward multiple-choice items may have little context, but might serve as a vocabulary or grammar check.” (Brown, 2003, hal. 194). In line with Brown (Steven J. Burton, 1991) says that Multiple-choice items can be used for many different areas of subject matter because they can adapt the various level of learning outcomes from the simple one to the complex one.

Furthermore, Osteroof stated others advantages of multiple choice items. “Multiple-choice items have four basic advantages over some of the other formats. First, they often provide a more adequate sampling of content. Second, these items tend to structure the problem to be addressed more effectively. Third, they can be quickly scored. Forth, responses to multiple choice items are objectively scored.” (Oosteroof, 2003, hal. 85)

For the detail of these advantages, it will be explained below.

1). Multiple-choice items allow a test to obtain a more adequate sampling of content.

There are two reason why multiple choice items are able to provide a more adequate sampling of content. Firstly, multiple choice can involve many more items than in essay. It is because of the time needed by the students for recording the response is lesser than in essay test. In addition, more content in multiple choice item can be sampled than content in essay. “Therefore, more content can be sampled by using the multiple-choice rather than the essay format” (Oosteroof, 2003, hal. 86).

Secondly, multiple choice item can measure procedural knowledge. Actually essay item is also able to measure procedural knowledge. So is short answer. But, if it is compared, multiple choice has more advantage than short answer test in the limitation of the concept knowledge. There are many things that students can do in multiple choice item such as identifyingan example of a particular concept by giving an options which include examples and non-examples of the concept, demonstarting the ability in classifying illustration related to the concept which is done by identifying the appropriate response, and applying the rule by including correct and common incorrect solutions resulting from the application of the rule. For those things, short answer test is not able to do it because of the restriction of the response which only consists of two words or a short sentence.

2). Multiple choice items tend to structure the problem to be addressed more effectively.

In multiple choice item, the responses help to define the problem being addressed. In this types of item, the items make the context clearer so that the problem is easier to be formated. “The context provided by the options makes it easier to structure a problem with a multiple-choice item than with other writen formats” ( (Oosteroof, 2003).

3). Multiple choice items can be quickly scored.

Scoring the multiple choice items is very fast since the respond of the students is in the single mark form. It is even easier when the machine score the test with the stipulation that the students responses are in separate answer sheet. “When responses are marked on a separate answer sheet, tests can be scored by machine” (Oosteroof, 2003).

4). Responses to multiple-choice items are objectively scored.

Multiple choice items have objective score. It is because multiple choice items are consistent in scoring. “Inconsistency in scoring is negligible with multiple-choice items” (Oosteroof, 2003). So, the test can be scored by different people such as students, teacher, aides, or machine as long as that the asnwer key is provided.

b. Disadvantages of Multiple Choice

“Multiple-choice items have three limitations we will address. First, these items are somewhat susceptible to guessing. Second, multiple-choice items usually must indirectly measure targetd behaviours. Third, multiple-choice items are time consuming to construct” (Oosteroof, 2003).

1). Multiple-choice items are somewhat susceptible to guessing.

In multiple choice items, there is possibility to get correct answer by guessing. The possibility of getting the correct answer by guessing will improve when the students are able to eliminate some of the distractors in a test. The result of this elimination is stated by Oosteroof (2003) that “the more distractors the students can eliminate in a test, the higher the test score.” So, the students who can avoid to choose the distractor will be able to get the higher score. This is what makes the negative effect of guessing in multiple choice items happened. Guessing in a test will affect the generalizability of performance in a negative way.

2). Multiple-choice items often must indirectly measure targeted behaviours.

It is impossible to know what the students are thinking whether they really get the answer or only guess the possible answer. “As with all test formats, multiple-choice items do not allow teachers to observe directly what the students was thinking or why students selected particular wrong answers” (Oosteroof, 2003, hal. 88). So, the result of the test sometimes does not really reflect the students ability.

3). Multiple-choice items are time-consuming.

Multiple choice items can be time-consuming  in order to have effective alternatives within each item. For other formats it will need lesser time than multiple choice items. “More time is required to build a test with multiple-choice items than is required with any other written format” (Oosteroof, 2003).