The app for independent voices
I’m on the precipice of putting out the first set of quizzes for my grammar/language course; they’ll be out this week.
A friend of mine, who is a prof at Seoul National University, thinks my quiz questions ought to be partial credit. Why? Because even though the questions are multiple choice—a format I despise as one of the worst ways to test knowledge—I’ve designed the answers to be of the “click all that apply” variety, i.e., instead of 4 possible single answers, there are 16 possibilities (pick none or pick a, b, c, d, ab, ac, ad, bc, bd, abc, abd, bcd . . . all the way up to abcd). This makes guessing one’s way through the quiz much harder. You’ll actually have to know stuff (oh, noes!). My friend thinks the no-partial-credit approach is too harsh.
Well, whether you’re a subscriber or just a random reader, please sound off: is my tiger-mother approach too harsh for most delicate Western sensibilities, or is it merely just and fair (not to mention more precise quizzing methodology) to drop the tiger mother and offer partial credit—say, ¼ point per correct multiple-choice answer for each question?
If you’re having a hard time imagining what I’m talking about, I’ll give you a hypothetical example from math (my actual quiz questions are about things like grammar, mechanics, etc.). Here’s a multiple-choice question with four answer choices in a pick-all-that-apply situation:
The expression 2 + 2 has the same value as
a. 2 × 2.
b. 19 - 17.
c. 36.
d. the cube root of 8.
So the way I have things set up right now, the correct answer is (a), (b), and (d). In my current setup, you have to select (a), (b), and (d) to get one point—no partial credit. It’s one point or zero points. My friend’s question (and I suspect a lot of grade grubbers will nod in agreement) is basically, “If someone marks only (a) and (b), shouldn’t they get partial credit for getting the question two-thirds right?” That’s what all of this comes down to.
I’m not so attached to my strict system that I can’t change it, but for me, the real question is whether the strictness merely provides a series of demotivating failure experiences, with only the psychologically hardiest students soldiering forward to getting everything right eventually. That might be a valid psychological reason to go for partial credit. (These quizzes, which have randomization elements, can be taken and retaken ad infinitum, with a gazillion possible combinations, so they are themselves a teaching tool, pointing out which answers are wrong without explaining why, i.e., learners have to go back to the lesson and “learn harder,” so to speak). Am I being needlessly cruel to have high expectations and to expect some effort on the learners’ part, or is my current system only fair?
Read my Test Central blog’s intro statement for further details:
And please feel free to leave (civil) comments to this note. I know some people have a weird tendency to regress back to their angry-teen years when they encounter strict teaching/learning policies; suddenly, it’s all about rebelling against the system again. I was in elementary, junior, and senior high school in the 70s and 80s, so I remember some of that rebelliousness myself, but not much. I was never a wild child, so I admit I don’t totally get the rebellious mindset. I simply accepted my school’s and county’s high standards and toughed it out without question.
For my free and paid subscribers, I’m going to put out a very simplified version of this note as a poll. I don’t have many subscribers yet (it’s been barely a month since I got active on Substack), so the poll results might not mean much. Anyway, thanks for reading and for responding.
PS: oh, yeah—I put up an old quiz on religion at the Test Central blog just to give you an idea of how the new quizzes will score things… unless the public convinces me to change my seemingly strict approach. Try the quiz out here (not for the timid):
ADDENDUM: here’s the poll I put up as a Substack post:
Go vote! ¡Vote aquí! I’m not putting up any quizzes until I have at least 10 votes or a week passes, whichever comes first. This might take a while. People are shy, and you should never talk to strangers, anyway.