Multiple choice vs essay...

I'd rather take a multiple choice question because it involves less writing however as far as fairness goes, I'd go with essays. The fault you highlighted is an issue, but these days (in England at least) no tutor will mark you on your opinion. I've given some pretty contraversial opinions in exams before and I feel like I've had fair marks for every one.

Epignosis wrote: As a teacher, I never once gave a multiple choice test unless the state required it.  Every single assessment I gave was open-ended.  It was time consuming for me to grade, but as an English teacher, open-ended assessments enabled me to gauge students' overall comprehension of not just the material, but syntax, grammar, clarity, etc. I should add that all of my tests were open-book as well.

We live in a complex world and most professional fields have so much data associated with them it is impossible to just memorize it. The truly successful know where there sources of reference are. Looking up an answer for multiple choice tests is cheating; looking them up for essay tests is research. One can easily discern understanding versus regurgitation. 

I can't recall actually sitting down for a "test" and having to handwrite a long essay when I was an undergrad (but I do remember doing this a bit in high school).  Of course, I didn't take many history, english, etc. courses, but the ones I did take had no exams, just papers.

At school and at university we never had multiple choice tests, never ever. You get questions or tasks, and there are no options to choose from. You always have to come up with an answer yourself.
At school a friend of mine was in the USA for a year, as part of an exchange programme. After she returned, she told us the incredible story: normally an average pupil here she was one of the best in the US. That is because the tests and exams were so easy. She told us, incredibly, the answers were already given, you only have to make a cross at the correct position.... (BTW, her US school year was not accepted, she had to repeat the year here in Germany.)

Essay.

But some subjects suit other formats. Most of what I study in the arts relies upon the ability to formulate arguments and develop ideas rather than simple memory recall. The one exam I've had in recent years that was set in multi-choice and short answer format I scored 98% in, so I guess I can't have too many complaints.




Edited by Any Colour You Like - February 23 2011 at 15:50

As a lazy person I much prefer multiple choice.

Definitely depends on subject, a multiple choice math question is easier for me than an essay question while it's the exact opposite in English.

The T wrote: Epignosis wrote: stonebeard wrote: Epignosis wrote: stonebeard wrote: It would be much more hard core just to sit down with the teacher and talk about the course and various things you covered. Like a 5 or 10 minute conversation. You could practically cover an essay test's worth of writing, save time, and have it be much less annoying. No annoying writing, no annoying reading annoying writing. Major problem with that. Sure grading an essay is someone subjective, but a conversation is greatly subject, and worse, there is no document or record of your conclusions or analysis.  Then teachers who harbor ill feelings against certain students can really shut them down.  At least with a written essay, if you feel you've been graded unfairly, you have something you could show to the department chair or an administrator. Record the conversation? 10 minute conversation x 90 students = 900 minutes = 15 hours total.  That assumes no lag between recordings, of course.  That's a long day. Furthermore, it gives an unfair advantage to other students (if you go last, you get at least 14 hours and 50 minutes more study time than the person who went first). Then there's a possibility of the recording equipment failing. And the possibility of the teacher being so tired at the end of the day that he doesn't give a damn about the last students... And that attitude will show, and the students' response will be affected

This can happen anyway with grading papers. Especially in college, dealing with real professors, it shouldn't be much of a surprise that they don't bend over to make things fair for students. There's a lot of 'the luck of the draw' to do with it, especially in final exam scheduling. No system is perfect.

And anyway, no one would have to watch the recordings unless there's an issue. If there is one, bring it up and see. it would take not much longer to hear/see the conversation than it would to read the essay. Maybe less time.

And everyone has strengths and weaknesses, but being able to have a conversation and put your thoughts into words you make with your mouth can be a useful skill to say the least. Even in this day and age when antisocial computer programmers and graphic designers can never see the light of day for weeks and work from the Internet at home. Writing coherent arguments may be great for internet forum stuff and theses, but talking and real life conversations are more important in most situations.

Not to say all testing should be like this, but we're amputating ourselves if we don't have anything like it.

Epignosis wrote: stonebeard wrote: Epignosis wrote: stonebeard wrote: It would be much more hard core just to sit down with the teacher and talk about the course and various things you covered. Like a 5 or 10 minute conversation. You could practically cover an essay test's worth of writing, save time, and have it be much less annoying. No annoying writing, no annoying reading annoying writing. Major problem with that. Sure grading an essay is someone subjective, but a conversation is greatly subject, and worse, there is no document or record of your conclusions or analysis.  Then teachers who harbor ill feelings against certain students can really shut them down.  At least with a written essay, if you feel you've been graded unfairly, you have something you could show to the department chair or an administrator. Record the conversation? 10 minute conversation x 90 students = 900 minutes = 15 hours total.  That assumes no lag between recordings, of course.  That's a long day. Furthermore, it gives an unfair advantage to other students (if you go last, you get at least 14 hours and 50 minutes more study time than the person who went first). Then there's a possibility of the recording equipment failing.

^Not only that but we know there are people who suck at speaking with others (specially when in need of doing so) yet shine in their knowledge and reasoning skills... Besides, a test of a 40-student class would take a LONG time