Re: Multiple choice vs. essay

[Beth Benoit]

Title: Re:  Multiple choice vs. essay



Stephen Black wrote:

>I should also add that marking essay questions is the worst form
>of academic torture in existence (even worse than attending
>Senate meetings), a cruel and unusual punishment.

Amen to the torture. (And you can quote me.)  But additionally, marking essay questions can be so subjective that I dread handing back corrected essay tests.  There's always a long line of whiners who insist that I should have somehow known what they meant to say.  (And I very seldom agree and make a change, so I don't think I reinforce that behavior, though maybe the "seldom" is just the problem, as Skinner might assert it's a variable-ratio reinforcer.)  

Additionally, essay questions seem more likely to result in students lodging formal complaints because they were "unfairly graded." I see the potential for trouble there.  Hasn't happened to me (yet?) but I do think about it when I'm being tortured (oops - I meant "when I'm grading essay questions") and I try to be very methodical about what information I'm looking for in the answer.

We are teaching in a very student-empowered time, which is fine of course since it's good we got over the Simon Legree image, yet I can't help but feel a bit beleaguered.  I dread the end of semester, when I have to give a final grade.  (I seem to recall Stephen Black making a similar statement a couple of years ago.)  I'm known (students tell me) as a "hard grader," and seldom does a new semester go by when I'm not challenged by a student from the last semester who wants to know why he/she got a certain grade.  (And it's almost always a challenge from a student to whom I'd like to say, "Duh, could be because you failed the final, didn't hand in your paper and only came to class half the time."  But I'm a disciple of Miss Manners, so I don't.)

Anybody else feel that multiple choice questions have a bigger safety harbor?

Beth Benoit
Daniel Webster College
College for Lifelong Learning
Portsmouth NH campuses