ABSTRACT
Structured exams include multiple-choice exams and several other types of formats in which students are not required to write ‘full’ answers, but have to make true-false decisions, or identify reasons to support assertions, or fill in blanks or complete statements, and so on. It is of course possible to design mixed exams combining free-response traditional questions with structured ones. In the following discussion, we will concentrate on the benefits and drawbacks of multiple-choice questions. Many of the same points also apply at least in part to other types of structured exam questions, such as true-false, short-answer and sequencing questions.
