Multiple Choice Test QuestionsAfter reading an article about Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead in a “Rolling Stone” magazine, these are two examples of questions I would ask my students a test (in a multiple choice format). These questions are also representative of two different levels of Bloom's taxonomy. 1) As a member of the Grateful Dead, what was Jerry Garcia's only hit radio single? a) Throwing Stonesb) Touch of Grayc) Built to Lastd) Franklin TowerCorrect Answer: b. Touch of Grey.2) In chronological order, identify which answer represents the progression of keyboardists (pianists) Jerry Garcia played with in the Grateful Dead?a) Brent Midland, Pigpen, Vince Wellnick, Keith Godchauxb) Pigpen, Keith Godchaux, Brent Midland , Vince Wellnickc) Keith Godchaux, Brent Midland, Vince Wellnick, Pigpene) Vince Wellnick, Pigpen, Keith Godchaux, Brent MidlandCorrect Answer: bI think these are good examples of Multiple choice questions because they do not include choices such as “none of the above” or “all of the above” in the answer section. It is helpful to omit choices like these because these responses do not help measure student mastery of the subject matter or teach unlearned material. Both of these questions have discriminating power, allowing me to see who has mastered the subject and who has not. The distractors I selected for these questions are the key ingredients that help me see who has mastered the topic. Distractors are not obvious wrong answers, they are choices that make students think, which ultimately raises the cognitive level of the test beyond that of simple memorization and recall. I believe my questions are clear and easily understandable. They should not make the student use energy unnecessarily to understand exactly what the question asks. Furthermore, in an attempt to make the question as clear as possible I have avoided the use of jargon and other complicated terms. I only used words that would be common to their vocabulary. I also avoided using negative test words like “not” and “never.” This made my questions easier to understand. I also tried not to make the right answer too obvious to my distractors. The last thing I did to improve these questions was to avoid redundancy by writing and rewriting the questions. Essay questions are very beneficial because, unlike multiple-choice questions, they can measure what students know and have learned. They allow students to express, in writing, what they know about the material for which they are held responsible.