Monday, April 2, 2012

The Value of True and False

Taking a quiz this morning in my Production and Utilization of Technology class, something hit me that always irks me when I encounter true and false questions. I DESPISE THEM. I really don't see the value in many of the t/f questions my teachers use on their assessments. I think most people would agree that some teachers and professors use the wrong type of questions on some of their assessments. Sure t/f is sometimes a more valuable type of question to use on an exam than others but I think they are used incorrectly most of the time. They're a guessing game for the most part. The students have a better chance of getting the question right if it is a true/ false question compared to a multiple choice or matching question, but they have a better chance of getting it wrong as well. Oftentimes I do not think t/f questions measure what the students have learned but simply make them take a swing at a lucky guess.

Any thoughts?

J.A.M.

2 comments:

  1. I hate true and false, too. I feel that they wouldn't be so bad if the teacher didn't seem to word the question so you have to sit there and wonder about one of the two answers. In my experience at least most of the time true/false answers have a part of them that makes you second guess yourself about four times. My math professor uses t/f on the tests and I think it's a really horrible way of assessing us.

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  2. I actually wrote a blog on this same thing just a couple of weeks ago! I have never liked true/false questions and though I have learned how they can be PROPERLY used, I still am not sure if I see the value.

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