6 COMPLETION and

SHORT ANSWER ITEMS

 The completion and short-answer formats are
equivalent. Their most significant distinction is
appearance.
Completion Item
-consists of a sentence containing one or more
blanks where the student is expected to identify
the word or phrase represented by each blank.
Short-answer Items
-are widely used in classroom quizzes and exams,
and even in academic contests in which small
teams of students from different schools compete
against each other.
ADVANTAGES AND LIMITATIONS OF
SHORT-ANSWER ITEMS
Advantages of Short-Answer Items

1. Short-answer items are easy to construct

-the ease of constructing short-answer item is a function
of two characteristics:
 Short-answer items generally can measure recall of
information but not procedural knowledge such as
concepts and rules.
 Items that measure recall information are easier to
construct.
2. Short-answer items require the student to supply the
answer.
-the multiple choice and, even more so, the alternate-
choice formats are negatively affected by guessing.
-guessing lowers test-score reliability, short-answer test
tend to be more reliable than multiple choice or
alternate choice tests that contain the same number of
items

3. Many short-answer items can be included in a test.

-allows one test to provide a more adequate sampling of
content, particularly compared with the essay format.
-this increases the reliability of test scores and
potentially their format and validity.
Limitations of Short-Answer Items
1. Short answer items are generally limited to measuring
recall of information.
-examined knowledge of facts such as names of people,
places and procedures
-the students must answer this format of items with a
short sentence or often a single word

2. Short-answer items are more likely to be scored

erroneously than are objectively scored format.
-can be answered with variety of responses, any one of
which might be desired responses
-errors are likely to be involved in scoring potentially
correct but divergent responses to short-items
IDENTIFYING QUALITIES DESIRED IN
SHORT-ANSWER ITEMS
1. Does this item measure the specified skill?
-items must collectively measure the skills specified
in the performance objectives or outlined in the
table of specifications
-item should be selected or constructed after a skill
to be measured has been identified

2. It is the level of reading skill required by this item

below the students, ability?
-note that internal consistency decreased when a
test measures more than one trait
If a test measures a students’ proficiency in
(1) A given content area and
(2) Reading ability
the internal consistency decreases more than one
quality because more than one quality is being
measured simultaneously.

3. Can this be answered using one or two words in a

short sentence?
-If more than a few words or a short sentence is
required to answer the question, the item is
probably a brief-response essay item and should
be evaluated with criteria for essay items.
4. Will only a single or very homogenous set of
responses provide a correct response to the item?
-construction of items so that only a single or very
homogenous set of responses represents a correct
answer reduces this kind of error.

To develop items with restricted responses, teachers

first determine the desired answer and then
construct a question for which that answer is the
only appropriate response. This is a very effective
technique(Ebel and Frisbie, 1986).
5. Does the item use grammatical structure and
vocabulary different from that contained in the source of
instruction?
-selecting important sentences from a textbook or other
source and replace a key word with a blank
Two problem associated with this practice
1. Encourages students to memorize rather than
comprehend what is read.
2. Most of the sentences derive some of their meaning
from adjacent sentences, extracting sentences creates
vague test items.
6. Does the format of the item (and the test in general)
allow for efficient scoring?
-are more time-consuming to score than are questions
written in the multiple-choice and alternate-choice
formats
-the efficiency of scoring can be improved by having
students write answers in a column to the side
7. If the item requires a numerical response, does that
question state the unit of measurement to be used in the
answer?
Ex. What is the sum of 24 inches and 12 inches?
____inches
8. Does the blank represent a key word?
If the blanks in the completion items fail to represent
key words, the test will measure reading comprehension
more than knowledge of a particular content area.

9. Are blanks placed at or near the end of the item?

-students can answer the items when they first come to a
blank and avoid having to reread part of the item.
1. The quality generally regarded as most essential in an
educational test is______.
10. Is the number of blanks sufficiently limited?
-having too many blanks increases the amount of time
required for the students to determine what is being
asked
-completion items tend to have multiple solutions as he
number of blanks increases, multiple answers are the
major source of errors when scoring short-answer items

11. Is the physical length of each blank the same?

-the tendency to provide a longer blank when the correct
response is longer word gives a clue o the answer
PRACTICE WITH APPLYING THESE
DESIRED QUALITIES TO SHORT-
ANSWER ITEMS