97 / 161
UNION EUROPÉENNE DES MÉDEC INS SPÉC IAL I STES
EUROPEAN UNION OF MEDI CAL SPEC IAL I STS
Association internationale sans but lucratif – International non-profit organisation
A
VENUE DE LA
C
OURONNE
, 20 5
T +32 2 649 51 64
BE- 1050 BRUSSELS
F +32 2 640 37 30
www.uems.net info@uems.net6)
Items can be written to allow the examinee to discriminate among options that vary in degree
of correctness.
7)
Achievement and progress (formative tests) can be compared from person to person, class to
class and year to year.
8)
As the bank of MCQs is progressively built up, the costs of assessment of knowledge become
predictable and contained.
9)
Electronic manipulation to vary the order in which questions are presented to the candidates
reduces the chance of cheating.
Limitations:
1)
Constructing good questions is time consuming.
2)
Frequently difficult to find plausible distractors (sometimes there is more than one defendable
“correct” answer.)
3)
Often the focus is on testing factual information (failing to test higher levels of cognitive thinking.)
4)
Can be ineffective in assessing some types of problem solving situations.
5)
Scores can be influenced by reading (and/or language) ability.
6)
Structure may lead students to read more into the question than was intended.
7)
Construction of high quality items places a high degree of dependence on the writing ability of
the author of that question.
8)
May encourage guessing.
9)
Do not allow the student to create their own answer (no information concerning individual
thought processes on how an answer was arrived at.)
10)
The examining body needs to own and keep electronically secure the questions and the correct
answers (The hardware used in the exams must also be secure to maintain exam security).