Chapter 9 - Instructional Media: Chalkboards to Video - CGISS

content than most other item types since students can respond to
many questions in the time allowed. They are easy to score
accurately and quickly.
Disadvantages -- True/false items, however, may not give a true
estimate of the students’ knowledge since students have a 50/50
chance of guessing the correct answer. They are very poor for
diagnosing students’ strengths and weaknesses and are generally
considered to be “tricky” by students. Since true/false questions
tend to be either extremely easy or extremely difficult, they do not
discriminate between students of varying ability as well as other
types of questions.
Suggestions for Constructing True/False Items
• Keep language as simple and clear as possible.
• Use a relatively large number of items (75 or more when the
entire test is T/F).
• Avoid taking statements verbatim from the text.
• Be aware that extremely long or complicated statements will
test reading skill rather than content knowledge.
• Require students to circle or underline a typed “T” or “F”
rather than to fill in a “T” or “F” next to the statement. This
allows scorers to avoid having to interpret confusing
handwriting.
• Avoid the use of negatives, especially double negatives.
Never use “not.”
• Avoid ambiguous or tricky items.
• Be certain that the statements used are entirely true or
entirely false. Statements that are either partially true or
partially false cause unnecessary ambiguity.
• Use certain key words sparingly since they tip students off
to the correct answers. The words “all,” “always,” “never,”
“every,” “none,” and “only” usually indicate a false
statement, whereas the words “generally,” “sometimes,”
“usually,” “maybe,” and “often” are frequently used in true
statements.
• Use precise terms, such as “50% of the time,” rather than
less precise terms, such as “several,” “seldom,” and
“frequently.”
• Use more false than true items, but do not exceed their use
more than 15%. False items tend to discriminate more than
true items.
• Avoid patterns in answers such as “all true,” “all false,” or
“alternation.”
Section: Student Assessment 161 Chapter 12: Testing Issues