ASSESSING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF MULTIPLE CHOICE MATH TESTS
Open Access
- Author:
- Somers, Elizabeth Anne
- Area of Honors:
- Mathematics
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Stanley S Smith, Thesis Supervisor
Mark Levi, Thesis Honors Advisor
Stanley S Smith, Thesis Supervisor - Keywords:
- multiple choice exams
data analysis
difficulty
effectiveness - Abstract:
- This study was conducted at Penn State University and focused on the Math 021, College Algebra, final exam results. The goal of this study was to examine the effectiveness and difficulty of multiple choice exam questions. This study looked at group data from the fall 2008 final exam (Schreyer, 2008) and based on this data, five questions were identified to appear on the spring 2010 final. These questions were chosen for their high effectiveness and appropriate difficulty level. This study found that both the effectiveness and difficulty of these exam questions changed from the fall 2008 to spring 2010 exams. Two of the five questions had an increase in difficulty, and one had a decrease in difficulty. The remaining two questions saw fairly consistent difficulty levels across the two exam years. The effectiveness of the questions decreased from the fall 2008 exam to the spring 2010 exam. The first three identical questions showed a large decrease in effectiveness, while the second two questions had more consistent effectiveness across exam years (MATH, 2010). The factors that affected the effectiveness and difficulty of the exam questions are discussed. The ALEKS program (ALEKS, 2010) used during the spring 2010 semester is one of these factors and this factor appeared to have an effect on the changes in effectiveness and difficulty.