Test with closed questions (quiz, partial test, exam)
With a test with closed questions, you can measure knowledge and skills across a broad knowledge domain very well.
With a test with closed questions, you can measure knowledge and skills across a broad knowledge domain very well. For large groups, it is an efficient and effective method because you can do the measurement in a short test time, and it can then be scored and analysed automatically. Partial tests, intermediate tests or partial exams can also be done particularly well with closed questions. It is less suitable for small groups because constructing good test questions is labour-intensive.
A test with closed questions contains a series of items that require students to select the correct answer: think of the familiar multiple-choice question. If you want to look more at insight questions or reasoning when answering, see if you can strike a balance by applying both closed and open-ended questions.
To deploy a test with closed questions, you can do the following:
- Provide a good test matrix so that you ensure a good representation of questions in terms of topics and intended skill (knowledge, application).
- Provide clear and precisely formulated questions, at least forty.
- Provide clear instructions for students.
- For summative tests, ensure that students have sufficient practice with the nature and level of the test.
Nowadays, exams are mainly administered digitally, but paper is sometimes still possible (or necessary). Digital tests can also be used to construct other types of questions, such as multiple-correct, drag-and-drop, order or matching questions.
For a digital test, you take the test in an appropriate application. For formative tests (quizzes) the functionality of the electronic learning environment such as Canvas is sufficient. For summative tests, such as (partial) exams, use a separate test application like TestVision. If you want to take tests for maths, statistics, physics or where diagrams or symbols have to be drawn, special systems are needed. These are not available everywhere. Then paper-based testing is needed again.
Digital testing systems have further advantages, such as being able to collaborate securely on a question bank, efficiently assess and analyse the tests taken or tests remotely.
Because digital testing systems involve more complexity than paper-based tests in terms of access rights, the large number of technical options and settings that need to be correct, and relationships with people who arrange planning and logistics, it is necessary to have a good understanding of how to organise and support for your particular test.
Want to know more?
- Know your role in the exam process of VU Amsterdam.
- SURF, & Versnellingsplan. (2022). Handbook Itembanking. https://werkgroep-toetsen-op-afstand.github.io/Handbook-Item-Banking/
- How many questions to include in a test? – Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
- This is how you combine open and closed questions in a test. – Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
- Kwaliteitsverbetering digitale toetsen – Universiteit Utrecht
See also: Exams with open-ended questions, Case test with closed questions, Case exam with open-ended questions.
Tools: TestVision, Canvas Quizzes.
VU Taxonomy?
Knowledge baseProgramme specific skills in applying knowledge and understanding
What total group size?
More than three hundredMore than one hundred