Sonal Srivastava | Posted on Monday, June 14,2021 15:22
The Covid-19 disruption has led many educational institutions to rely on multiple-choice questions, MCQ format, to test students’ knowledge. However, different aspects of MCQs need to be closely examined and a good mix of objective and subjective-type questions is required for a wholesome assessment of students’ learning and ability to think critically.
In the first week of June, the state government of
A year later, many colleges are now making an attempt to make testing methods flexible. In
“In MCQs, students choose an answer from a list of alternatives provided to them, in which, they can excel by practising regularly. In subjective questions, students have to organise the answer using their own words and thoughts,” says Sukanya Sharma, assistant professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences,
More than the ability to think creatively, MCQs tend to test the examinee’s memory. They can be too easy or too difficult, and the correct answers could also be a result of guesswork. “At the bachelor’s level teachers usually do not want to assess student's memory for facts but also comprehension of concepts and ability to critically analyse divergent viewpoints. For this purpose, subjective assessment is a better option. Also, in online exams, subjective questions when framed properly can motivate students to write original answers. Correcting subjective answers is a time-consuming exercise, but it achieves pedagogic objectives better," says Devika Sethi, assistant professor, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Mandi.
“When it comes to large classes or entrance tests for any subject, subjective questions may not be feasible. Subjective questions work for humanities and social sciences courses when the class size is under 50 or so,” says Jyotirmaya Tripathy, professor, and Head, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences,
In 1982, Christopher P Sole created the first multiple-choice examinations for dyslexic students, to help them deal with the Latin names of plants in agriculture subjects. Ever since researchers and academicians have been debating whether MCQ is a better choice compared to long-drawn subjective questions. “MCQs open up a window for guesswork as the probability of getting a random answer correct is 25% (assuming four options). Subjective or descriptive questions, on the other hand, expect students to delineate the understanding clearly but on the downside, rewards those who have a better memory. For subjects or topics which are logical (left-brained) like Maths, Science, etc, MCQs would fare better while for creative (right-brained) subjects, it would be better to go for subjective questions,” says Vikas Kakwani, founder, AAS Vidyalaya, an online school that helps the less privileged students to continue their education.
Educationists say that there cannot be a single indicator of knowledge. It depends on the parameters that one wants to gauge through the assessment. Subjective questions are useful in evaluating the depth of conceptual knowledge and ability to articulate. The ability to construct arguments and justify positions on a particular topic or concept can also be tested effectively. Some of these elements are missed out in an objective evaluation,” says Sai Sindhuja, principal, Narayana e-Techno School, Wall Tax Road, Chennai, pointing out that MCQs are useful in evaluating a student’s understanding across multiple concepts quickly. Also, objective exams demonstrate a student’s ability to pick the right answer in the face of choices that look similar, she says. “Informed guesses are intuition at play. We sometimes bridge the gap in recall of knowledge with intuition and this is apparent in MCQ-type exams. In the real world where problems are abstract with no clear parameters, this is an important skill set,” explains Sindhuja, adding that both MCQs and subjective questions are useful tools to evaluate knowledge. A combination of the two along with other assessment formats is what works best.