Using MCQ’s to assess learning from lower- to higher-order levels of thinking
MCQs can effectively assess learning at various cognitive levels, from lower- to higher-order levels of thinking (Parkes & Zimmaro, 2016).[1]
Read about Bloom’s Taxonomy and the cognitive processes students may engage in when participating in learning and assessment activities.
In this section, we offer examples of MCQs that support the assessment of learning at the cognitive levels described in Bloom’s Taxonomy.
Lower-order thinking
Learning outcome: recall the author of a specific book
Who is the author of “Das Kapital”?
a) Mannheim
b) Marx
c) Weber
d) Engels
e) Michels
(Carneson, Delpierre, & Masters, 2016, p. 24)[2]
Learning outcome: identify the meaning of the concept of reliability
Reliability is the same as:
a) Consistency
b) Relevancy
c) Rpresentativeness
d) Usefulness
(Zimmaro, 2016, p. 21)[3]
Learning outcome: recognize the relationship between validity and reliability
The statement that “test reliability is a necessary but not sufficient condition of test validity” means that:
a) A reliable test will have a certain degree of validity.
b) A valid test will have a certain degree of reliability.
c) A reliable test may be completely invalid and a valid test completely unreliable.
(Zimmaro, 2016, p. 21)[3]
Higher-order thinking
Learning outcome: calculate calories in micronutrients
Sandra decides to have a meal of pancakes topped with maple syrup and butter. Her meal contains 20g of fat, 10g of protein, and 100g of carbohydrates.
Which of the following provides the closest approximation of how many calories (kilocalories) the meal contains?
a) 300
b) 600
c) 900
d) 1200
(McGill University course: Food for Thought, CHEM 181x, n.d.) [4]
Learning outcome: summarize main ideas from a historical text
Jefferson Davis made a speech to the Confederate Congress on April 29, 1861. This excerpt comes after Davis has reviewed several different ways in which the North had promoted its own economic, social, and political interests at the expense of the South and has reviewed the principle of state sovereignty regarding anything not explicitly mentioned in the U.S. Constitution:
“The people of the Confederate States, in their conventions, determined that the wrongs which they had suffered and the evils with which they were menaced required that they should revoke the delegation of powers to the Federal Government which they had ratified in their several conventions. They consequently passed ordinances resuming all their rights as sovereign and Independent States and dissolved their connection with the other States of the Union.”
Which of the following is the best summary of the idea Jefferson Davis is trying to communicate in this excerpt?
The problems of the South are all the North’s fault.
The North has been bullying the South, and the South’s response has been justifiable and civilized.
The Confederate Congress will be much better able to govern the South than the Union Congress has been able to.
(Brookhart, 2015, p. 38)[5]
Learning outcome: predict effects of lenses on light trajectory
In the diagram below, parallel light rays pass through a convex lens and converge to a focus. They can be made parallel again by placing a:
Concave lens at point B
Concave lens at point C
Second convex lens at point A
Second convex lens at point B
Second convex lens at point C
(Burton et al., 1991, p. 9)[6]
Learning outcome: make appropriate clinical decisions based on laboratory data
A 62-year-old woman with a history of confusion and constipation comes to the office for a follow-up visit. Laboratory investigations reveal a serum calcium of 2.9mmol/L, a creatinine of 146 µmol/L, and a hemoglobin of 108 g/L.
Which one of the following would you measure to help confirm the diagnosis?
a) Parathyroid hormone
b) Serum protein
c) 25-OH vitamin D
d) Serum creatinine
(Adapted from Medical Council of Canada, 2010, p. 22) [8]
Learning outcome: assess the relative importance of various arguments for supporting a given conclusion
Directions: Read the following comments a teacher made about testing. Then answer the questions that follows by circling the letter of the best answer.
“Students go to school to learn, not to take tests. In addition, tests cannot be used to indicate a student’s absolute level of learning. All tests can do is rank students in order of achievement, and this relative ranking is influenced by guessing, bluffing, and the subjective opinions of the teacher doing the scoring. The teacher-learning process would benefit if we did away with tests and depended on student self-evaluation.”
Which one of the following propositions is most essential to the final conclusion?
a) Effective self-evaluation does not require the use of test.
b) Tests place students in rank order only.
c) Test scores are influenced by factors other than achievement.
d) Students do not go to school to take tests.
(Zimmaro, 2016, p. 22)[3]
Learning outcome: evaluate between cause and effect in a statement in terms of predefined criteria
Judge the sentence in italics according to the criteria given below:
“The United States took part in the Gulf War against Iraq BECAUSE of the lack of civil liberties imposed on the Kurds by Saddam Hussein’s regime.”
a) The assertion and the reason are both correct, and the reason is valid.
b) The assertion and the reason are both correct, but the reason is invalid.
c) The assertion is correct but the reason is incorrect.
d) The assertion is incorrect but the reason is correct.
e) Both the assertion and the reason are incorrect.
(Carneson, Delpierre, & Masters, 2016, p. 29)[7]
Context-dependent items
An effective approach to foster higher-order thinking skills and enhance the authenticity of tests involves integrating resources such as pictures, tables, graphs, text passages, software output, and screenshots directly into the test format (ensuring that all items are accessible). Rather than posing a single multiple-choice question, a series of questions can be crafted based on the provided material, encouraging deeper engagement and critical analysis.
Example:
Two researchers were studying the relationship between amount of sleep each night and calories burned on an exercise bike for 42 men and women. They were interested if people who slept more had more energy to use during their exercise session. They obtained a correlation of .28, which has a two-tailed probability of .08. Alpha was .10.
Which is an example of a properly written research question?
a) Is there a relationship between amount of sleep and energy expanded?
b) Does amount of sleep correlate with energy used?
c) What is the cause of energy expanded?
d) What is the value of rho?
What is the correct term for the variable amount of sleep?
a) Dependent
b) Independent
c) Predictor
d) y
What is the correct statistical null hypothesis?
a) There is no correlation between sleep and energy expanded.
b) Rho equals zero.
c) R equals zero.
d) Rho equals r.
What conclusions should you draw regarding the null hypothesis?
a) Reject.
b) Accept.
c) Cannot determine without more information.
What conclusions should you draw regarding this study?
a) The correlation was significant.
b) The correlation was not significant.
c) A small relationship exists.
d) No relationship exists.
(Haladyna, 1994, p. 148)[9]
References:
[1] Parkes, J., & Zimmaro, D. (2016). Learning and assessing with multiple-choice questions in college classrooms. Routledge.
[2] Carneson, J., Delpierre, G., & Masters, K. (2016). Designing and managing multiple choice questions, (2nd ed.).
[3] Zimmaro, D. M. (2016). Writing good multiple-choice exams. University of Texas at Austin, Faculty Innovation Centre.
[4] Reference section: Fenster, A., Harpp, D.N., & Schwarcz, J. (n.d.). McGillX: Food for Thought [MOOC]. edX. https://www.edx.org/learn/food-science/mcgill-food-for-thought
[5] Brookhart, S. M. (2015). Making the most of multiple choice. Educational Leadership, 73(1), 36–39.
[6] Burton, S. J., Sudweeks, R. R., Merrill, P. F., & Wood, B. (1991). How to prepare better multiple-choice test items: Guidelines for university faculty. Brigham Young University Testing Centre.
[7] Carneson, J., Delpierre, G., & Masters, K. (2016). Designing and managing multiple choice questions, (2nd ed.).
[8] Medical Council of Canada. (2010). Guidelines for the development of multiple-choice questions. Medical Council of Canada.
[9] Haladyna, T. M. (1994). Developing and validating-multiple choice test items, (1st ed.). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
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