Multiple choice vs essay...

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.

As far as actually assessing what people really know, essay, but honestly those are a huge pain in the ass. You not only have to think about what you want to say, but then write it down over the course of an hour or two until you hand is going to fall off. Philosophy finals, man. Philosophy finals.

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.

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.