Extended Matching Items - Structure

Structure


The structure has three key elements:

Answer option list
Sources suggest using a minimum of eight answer options to a ratio of five scenarios or vignettes to ensure that the probability of getting the correct answer by chance remains reasonably low.. The exact number of answer options should be dictated by the logical number of realistic options. This ensures that the test item has authenticity and validity.
Lead in question
This should be as specific as possible and on reading the lead in question it should be understand exactly what the student needs to do - without needing to look at the answer options. If you need to look at the answers to understand the question, the item has not been well written.
Two or more scenarios or vignettes
There should be at least two vignettes, otherwise this becomes an MCQ. Because the item allows for an in depth test of knowledge each of the scenarios should be related to one another by a theme that summarises the question overall. Each scenario should be roughly similar in structure and content, and each has one 'best' answer from amongst the series of answer options given.

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Famous quotes containing the word structure:

    “What is the structure of government that will best guard against the precipitate counsels and factious combinations for unjust purposes, without a sacrifice of the fundamental principle of republicanism?”
    —James Madison (1751–1836)

    “The philosopher believes that the value of his philosophy lies in its totality, in its structure: posterity discovers it in the stones with which he built and with which other structures are subsequently built that are frequently better—and so, in the fact that that structure can be demolished and yet still possess value as material.”
    —Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)

    “The syntactic component of a grammar must specify, for each sentence, a deep structure that determines its semantic interpretation and a surface structure that determines its phonetic interpretation.”
    —Noam Chomsky (b. 1928)