Item Formats

When it comes to the method by which psychological attributes are to be assessed, the test developer is confronted with dozens of choices. There are 5 types of item formats-

Multiple choice; for group-administered test of intellect or achievement, the technique of choice is the multiple choice question.

Advantage of MCQ;
 Properly constructed items can measure conceptual and factual knowledge
 Permit quick and objective machine scoring
 Fairness.
Disadvantages
 Difficulty of writing good distracter options
 Guesses
The guidelines for writing multiple choice items
 Choose words that have precise meanings.
 Avoid all information needed for response selection.
 Include all information needed for response selection
 Put as mush of the question as possible in the stem.
 Do not take stems verbatim from textbooks
 Use options of equal length and parallel phrasing
 Use ‘none of the above’ and ‘all of the above’ rarely.
 Minimize the use of negative such as “not”
 Avoid the use of nonfunctional words
 Avoid unessential specificity in the stem
 Avoid unnecessary clues to the correct response
 Submit items to others for editorial security


Matching; Matching questions are popular in classroom testing, but suffer serious psychometric shortcomings.
Disadvantages
 Responses are not independent missing one match usually compels the examinee to miss another.
 The options must be very closely related or the question will be too easy.

Short answer objective item; for individual administered test, the procedure of choice is the short-answer objective item.
Advantage;
 Simplest and most straightforward
 Best reliability and validity
True/false; Personality test often use true/false questions because they are easy for subjects of understand.
Advantage
 Simple to answer the true or false
Disadvantages
 Answer may reflect social desirability rather than personality
Forced choice methodology; an alternative format designed to counteract this problem is the forced choice methodology, where the examinee must choose between two equally desirable options.