BIll (and others):
I suspect it is difficult to seperate out the
easiness/difficulty of the questions and/or the
marking rigour/subjectivity in a single case like
this, but generally I know that other results
find high correlations between MC results and
essay results (e.g. Walstad, W. and W. Becker,
"Achievement Differences on Multiple-Choice and
Essay Tests", AER May 1994.
Studies of advanced placement tests (AP) for
other disciplines seem to find that MC tests
measure knowledge as well as essay tests, at
lower costs. They compare the MC and essay tests
from the AP economics exams. Regressing Composite
= intercept + MC score yields R2 of 0.9 to 0.94 -
the essays add almost nothing to the composite
score, despite their 1/3 weight in the composite
score, and their 1/3 - ˝ share of the marking
time.)
Another question of interest: did you find males
did better on MC, relative to females, and
vice-versa for the written questions, as
sometimes found in the literature?
Harvey King, PhD
Assistant Dean (Undergraduate Affairs)
Associate Professor (Economics)
Faculty of Arts
University of Regina
Regina, Sk., Canada S4S 0A2
harvey.king@uregina.ca
306-585-4772
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