Multiple choice is a form of assessment in which respondents are asked to select one or more choices from a list. The multiple choice format is most frequently used in educational testing, in market research, and in elections-- when a person chooses between multiple candidates, parties, or policies.
Although E. L. Thorndike developed an early multiple choice test, Frederick J. Kelly was the first to use such items as part of a large scale assessment. While Director of the Training School at Kansas State Normal School (now Emporia State College) in 1915, he developed and administered the Kansas Silent Reading Test. Soon after, Kelly became the third Dean of the College of Education at the University of Kansas. The first all multiple choice, large scale assessment was the Army Alpha, used to assess the intelligence of World War I military recruits.
The items of a multiple choice test are often colloquially referred to as "questions," but this is a misnomer because many items are not phrased as a question. For example, they can be presented as incomplete statements or mathematical equations. Thus, the more general term "item," is the most appropriate label.
For advanced items, such as an applied knowledge item, the stem can consist of multiple parts. The stem can include extended or ancillary material such as a vignette, a case study, a graph, a table, or a detailed description which has multiple elements to it. Anything may be included as long it is necessary to ensure the utmost validity and authenticity to the item. The stem ends with a lead-in question explaining how the respondent must answer. In a medical multiple choice items, a lead-in question may ask "What is the most likely diagnosis?" or "What pathogen is the most likely cause?" in reference to a case study that was previously presented.
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Multiple choice tests often require less time to administer for a given amount of material than would tests requiring written responses. This results in a more comprehensive evaluation of the candidate's extent of knowledge. Even greater efficiency can be created by the use of online examination delivery software. This increase in efficiency can offset the advantages offered by free-response items. That is, if free-response items provide twice as much information but take four times as long to complete, multiple-choice items present a better measurement tool.
Multiple choice questions lend themselves to the development of objective assessment items, however, without author training, questions can be subjective in nature. Because this style of test does not require a teacher to interpret answers, test-takers are graded purely on their selections, creating a lower likelihood of teacher bias in the results. Factors irrelevant to the assessed material (such as handwriting and clarity of presentation) do not come into play in a multiple choice assessment, and so the candidate is graded purely on their knowledge of the topic. Finally, if test-takers are aware of how to use answer sheets and/or online examination tick boxes, their responses can be relied upon with clarity.
In addition, even if a student has some knowledge of a question, they receive no credit for knowing that information if they select the wrong answer, if the item is scored dichotomously. However, free response questions may allow a taker to demonstrate their understanding of the subject and receive partial credit. Multiple choice test takers may be able to rule out answers due to infeasibility and get high scores without actually knowing the material. The use of multiple choice questions in certain educational fields is sometimes contested due to some of the negative aspects, whether actual or perceived, but the format remains popular due to its utility and cost effectiveness.
Another disadvantage of multiple choice examinations is that a student who is incapable of answering a particular question can simply select a random answer and still have a chance of receiving a mark for it. It is common practice for students with no time left to give all remaining questions random answers in the hope that they will get at least some of them right. Some exams, such as the Australian Mathematics Competition, have systems in place to negate this, in this case by making it more beneficial to not give an answer than to give a wrong one. This is usually not a great issue, however, since the odds of a student receiving significant marks by guessing are very low when four or more selections are available.
Additionally, it is important to note that questions phrased ambiguously may cause test-taker confusion. It is generally accepted that multiple choice questions allow for only one answer, where the one answer may encapsulate a collection of previous options. However, some test creators are unaware of this and might expect you to select multiple answers without explicitly saying that you can select more than one choice or providing the trailing encapsulation options.
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