Number of words: 320

The use of objective type and short answer questions answers, doubtless, reduce the importance of language in testing, but whether in the long run they will provide more than the immediate gains of alerting recall and understanding, remains conjectural. That can be moved to multiple choice questions with the test maker imagines and we can draw two morals, one for the test maker, whether amateur or professional, and the other for the test taker. For the former, you cannot be too careful about wording – or about choice of answer. For the latter, the sort of advise the teachers find themselves having to give to students before they take the multiple choice test: when in doubt, don’t think – just pick.

In a booklet, ‘Scholastic Aptitude Test’, published by the college entrance board of New York in 1956, describing tests given to students seeking admission to college, the following advice is given. As you read through the explanations of the verbal section, you might disagree with what we think to be the correct answer to one or two questions. You might think we are quibbling in making certain distinctions between answer choices. It is true that you will find some close distinctions and just as true in making close distinctions, reasonable people do disagree. So much for the importance of verbal explanations in an examination question paper. It is readily admitted today that the objective type question gives the gifted students little, if any, chance to display his superiority over his merely clever rivals while admitting that genuine depth is not present. The so-called difficult question is not because of depth but because it involves close distinctions about which there is room for legitimate doubt. It is interesting to note that in the 1960 edition of the same booklet from which the above quotation was chosen, these words were omitted.

Excerpted from page 121 of ‘Examinations: An Informative Update’ by M Mascarenhas.