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.
Read more about this topic: Extended Matching Items
Famous quotes containing the word structure:
“When a house is tottering to its fall,
The strain lies heaviest on the weakest part,
One tiny crack throughout the structure spreads,
And its own weight soon brings it toppling down.”
—Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso)
“The structure was designed by an old sea captain who believed that the world would end in a flood. He built a home in the traditional shape of the Ark, inverted, with the roof forming the hull of the proposed vessel. The builder expected that the deluge would cause the house to topple and then reverse itself, floating away on its roof until it should land on some new Ararat.”
—For the State of New Jersey, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“... the structure of our public morality crashed to earth. Above its grave a tombstone read, “Be tolerant—even of evil.” Logically the next step would be to say to our commonwealth’s criminals, “I disagree that it’s all right to rob and murder, but naturally I respect your opinion.” Tolerance is only complacence when it makes no distinction between right and wrong.”
—Sarah Patton Boyle, U.S. civil rights activist and author. The Desegregated Heart, part 2, ch. 2 (1962)