Submitted By :

Name: Muhammad Asif

Roll No: bsf1900142
Topic: Advantages and Limitations of Objective Test Items
Assignment No: 36
Submitted to: Ms. Javeria Rafique
Date : 14/01/2021

University of Education
Division of science and Technology,Township Lahore.

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Objective Test :

Objective tests are questions whose answers are either correct or incorrect. Objective items
which require students to select the correct response from several alternatives or to supply a
word or short phrase to answer a question or complete a statement.Simply, an objective type
test is one which is free from any subjective bias either from the tester or the marker. It refers
to any written test that requires the examinee to select the correct answer from among one
or more of several alternatives or supply a word or two and that demands an objective
judgment when it is scored. MCQs, fill-in-the-blanks questions and short essay questions.

Merits of Objective Type Test:

1. Objective type test gives scope for wider sampling of the content.
2. It can be scored objectively and easily. The scoring will not vary from time to time or from
examiner to examiner.
3. This test reduces (a) the role of luck and (b) cramming of expected questions. As a result,
there is greater reliability and better content validity.
4. This type of question has greater motivational value.
5. It possesses economy of time, for it takes less time to answer than an essay test.
Comparatively, many test items can be presented to students. It also saves a let of time of the
scorer.
6. It eliminates extraneous (irrelevant) factors such as speed of writing, fluency of expression,
literary style, good handwriting, neatness, etc.
7. It measures the higher mental processes of understanding, application, analysis, prediction
and interpretation.
8. It permits stencil, machine or clerical scoring. Thus scoring is very easy.
9. Linguistic ability is not required.

Guidelines for Constructing Better Objective Type Test Items:

To be a good item writer, one should have:
(a) A thorough understanding of the subject matter;
(b) A thorough understanding of the pupils tested;
(c) Perseverance; and
(d) A little creativity to prepare fertile kind of items.

Categories of Objective Test Items:

1): Multiple Choice Test Items
2): True False Test Items
3): Matching Mismatching Test Items
4): Fill in the Blanks

5): Simple Recall Test

6): Best Answer Test

7): Completion Test

1): Multiple Choice Test Items:

The multiple-choice item consists of two parts:
(a) the stem, which identifies the question or problem
(b) the response alternatives. Students are asked to select the one alternative that best
completes the statement or answers the question.

Example:
Item Stem: Which of the following is a chemical change?
Response Alternatives: a.Evaporation of alcohol

b.Freezing of water
*c.Burning of oil
d.Melting of wax
*correct response

Multiple-choice items can provide ...

 versatility in measuring all levels of cognitive ability.

 highly reliable test scores.
 scoring efficiency and accuracy.
 objective measurement of student achievement or ability.
 a wide sampling of content or objectives.
 a reduced guessing factor when compared to true-false items.

Limitations In Using Multiple-Choice Items:

 Multiple-choice items are difficult and time consuming to construct.

 Multiple-choice items lead an instructor to favor simple recall of facts.
 Multiple-choice items place a high degree of dependence on the student's reading ability
and instructor's writing ability
2): True False Test Items:
A true or false question consists of a statement that requires a true or false response.
There are other variations of the True or False format as well, such as: “yes” or “no”, “correct”
or “incorrect”, and “agree” or “disagree” which is often used in surveys.

True False Tests:

Certain statements are given below. Against each statement two words are mentioned.

That is true and false. Underline the correct one.

(a) People used to love their houses during the Mauryan period.

(True/False)

(b) Similar triangles are congruent. (True/False)

(c) Supplementary angles are equal. (True/False)

True/False Questions Advantages:

 Enable you to cover a wide area of knowledge.

 Can be constructed out of a few words, which makes them less dependent on the
learner’s ability to read carefully.
 Take very little time to be answered. On average, a learner can answer 3-4 true/false
questions per minute.
 Assist learners in acquiring and retaining new information.
True/False Questions Disadvantages:
 Care must be taken as to not make the questions too simplistic.
 It is hard to accurately gauge a learner’s actual understanding of the material judging
by the results of a test composed of true/false questions.

3): Matching Mismatching Test Items:

The matching test item format provides a way for learners to connect a word, sentence or
phrase in one column to a corresponding word, sentence or phrase in a second column. The
items in the first column are called premises and the answers in the second column are
the responses.

Under column ‘A’ names of certain books and under ‘B’ names of certain authors are given.
Write down the names of the right authors under column ‘C.

‘A’ ‘B’ ‘C
4): Simple Recall Test:

Write in one word the answer of the following:

(a) What is the per capita income in Pakistan?

(b) What is the per capita income in U.K.? ,

(c) What is the exchange value of the Pakistani Rupee in terms of the Dollar?

5):Best Answer Test:

Put market against the best answer, (a) Alexander didn’t proceed further. The reason was
that

He didn’t know to route

(ii) His forces refused to go further.

(iii) He was defeated by some king.

6): Completion Test:

Fill in the blank by appropriate word in the following:

(i) To be wealth, a thing must have scarcity, utility and…..

(ii) You should refrain….doing undesirable things.

Advantages of Objective Test:

 Quick and easy to score, by hand or electronically
 Can be written so that they test a wide range of higher-order thinking skills
 Can cover lots of content areas on a single exam and still be answered in a class
period.

Limitations of Objective Test Items:

 Objectives like ability to organise matter, ability to present matter logically and in a
coherent fashion, etc., cannot be evaluated.
 Guessing is possible. No doubt the chances of success may be reduced by the inclusion
of a large number of items.
 If a respondent marks all responses as correct, the result may be misleading.
 Construction of the objective test items is difficult while answering them is quite easy.
 They demand more of analysis than synthesis.
 Linguistic ability of the testee is not at all tested.
 Printing cost considerably greater than that of an essay test.
  Often test literacy skills: “if the student reads the question carefully, the answer
is easy to recognize even if the student knows little about the subject.
 Provide unprepared students the opportunity to guess, and with guesses that are
right, they get credit for things they don’t know
 Expose students to misinformation that can influence subsequent thinking about
the content
 Take time and skill to construct (especially good questions)

Bibliography:
Links:

citl-slatespt@illinois.edu
www.businessmanagementideas.com
https://www.facultyfocus.com/
https://elearningindustry.com/
https://theelearningcoach.com/