Type of Questions | Essay type Short answer type, Objective type | Pedagogy of English

Type of Questions | Essay type Short answer type, Objective type | Pedagogy of English

Type of Questions | Essay type Short answer type, Objective type | Pedagogy of English

Three Types of Questions

Essay type 
Short answer type, 
Objective type

Essay Type of Questions

Essay type of questions are also called long answer questions as well as traditional type of questions

They are most commonly used type of questions.

Their evaluation is subjective in nature.

For example

-Write and essay on ‘Earthquake’

-Write a story based on the points given.

 

 

Type of Questions: Essay Type of Questions: Examples

Short Notes: Write a shortnote on ‘Our national flag’

Paragraph Writing : Write a paragraph on ‘a visit to a zoo’

Essay Writing : Write an essay on ‘ science as a boon or curse’

Story Writing: Write a story ‘Unity is strength’ based on the following points.

Report Writing :Write a report of an accident you witnessed. 

Precis Writing : Reduce the following paragraph to 1/3 in your own words.

Letter Writing: Write a letter of complain to municipal commissioner about bad conditions of gutter in your society.

Application Writing: Write an application for the post of a teacher of English in Sun Star school.

Long Questions: What are J. Krishnamurti’s views on education?

 

Type of Questions: Essay Type of Questions: Advantages

Allows students to express their ideas, knowledge, skills, and abilities in a variety of ways

It is relatively easier to prepare

It can be used to develop student writing skills

They are very useful in testing knowledge of language i.e. sentence structure, vocabulary, spellings, punctuation marks, capitalization and paragraphing sense.

 

Type of Questions: Essay Type of Questions: Advantages

5.  It is the only means that can assess an examinee’s ability to organise and present his ideas in a logical and coherent fashion. Some of the objectives such as ability to organise idea effectively, ability to criticise or justify a statement, ability to interpret, etc., can be best measured by this type of questions.

Type of Questions: Essay Type of Questions: Advantages

6.  Guessing is eliminated

7.  Essay questions can provide the instructor with insight into possible misunderstandings students' have of the material.

8. It can be successfully employed for practically all the school subjects.

9. It can be useful in testing the creativity of the students.

Type of Questions: Essay Type of Questions: Limitations

Subjective evaluations. Moreover, scoring may be affected by spelling, good handwriting, colored ink, neatness, grammar, length of the answer, etc. Mood of the examiner affects the scoring of answer scripts. Thus it may change with different evaluators. Its evaluation may not be reliable.

They do not give scope of covering larger part of  content means can not cover whole course.

Type of Questions: Essay Type of Questions: Limitations

3.  Essay items are good for testing small      numbers of students. However, as the      number of student increases, the      advantage of essay test decreases.

4.  Essay questions are time consuming to     teachers and students. Students often       spend much time answering only one     or two essay questions. Sometime the      length of answer is not limited.    Teachers, on the other hand, also          devote much time reading lengthy          responses.

 

Type of Questions: Essay Type of Questions: Limitations

5.Essay responses are subject to bluffing. Essays eliminate guessing but not        bluffing. Poorly prepared students desperately attempt to get a passing grade by answering something even if the responses are not related to the questions asked

     Improper and ambiguous wording handicaps both the students and valuers   in questions and answers.

7. In most cases students neither get full marks not zero.

8. Mostly useful at higher level of education.

 

 

Type of Questions: Essay Type of Questions
How to construct? What to keep in mind?

Keep in mind the objective before constructing a question.

The language of question must be clear and simple.

Instead of asking too long questions devide it in points.

Should use words such as explain, discuss, elaborate this point, enlist, compare, differentiate, summarise, evaluate, review, why, how???

 

Type of Questions: Essay Type of Questions
How to construct? What to keep in mind?

5. Should devide marking in content and language.

6. Should ask thought provoking, logical questions rather than testing just the information and memory.

 

Type of Questions: Short answer type of questions

Short answer type of questions are constructed to remove the limitations of essay type of questions.

They are midway between essay type and objective type of questions. Not too long and not too short.

Its answer is short may be in 5-8 sentences/lines/points.

Type of Questions: Short answer type of questions
Examples

How are bamboo trees useful to us?

What did Gandhiji do when he was thrown out of the coach at Jonesburg?

Why did Nehru write ;Discovery of India’?

Rewrite a short dialogue from direct to indirect speech.

Describe a picture in 5 sentences.

Reading comprehension excercises.

Rewriting a paragraph changing it grammar properties. (Change tense)

 

Type of Questions: Short answer type of questions
Advantages

1.    Relatively easy to construct

2.   They can cover wide range of content, almost whole syllabus.

3.    Reduce guessing to some extent.

4.   More objective compared to essay type of questions.

5. More accuracy due to more questions.

6. Students need not much time to answer.

7. Assessment does not become so tiring for teachers as in Essay type.

 

 

Type of Questions: Short answer type of questions
Disadvantages

Primarily used for testing lower level of thinking, they do not test the ability to express and organize ideas.

Prone to ambiguity, one should be careful that it does not become or look like an essay type of question.

Teachers many a time construct essay type of questions instead of short answer type due to inexperience.

 

Type of Questions: Short answer type of questions
How to construct? What to keep in mind?

Such questions should not require preface/introduction or conclusion. Direct answer should be sufficient.

Student should be able to understand the questions and answer promptly.

Questions should not look like essay type.

Give appropriate marking according to the length. (2-4-5)

Type of Questions: Objective type of questions

Objective type of questions are those where there is no subjectivity in evaluation. It means they have fixed/definite/one answer only.

They are the most reliable.

It doesn’t matter who is checking the answers the result will not vary. If there is answer key, anyone can check the questions. 

 

George Fisher initiated such questions

Type of Questions: Objective type of questions
Examples: Completion test/Cloze test

A paragraph or sentence is given in which important words are omitted and students have fill them up.

Spelling completion: e_e_h_nt.

Fill in the blanks with suitable words.

According to a report in yesterday’s newspaper 1._____ police dog was taken to Raj Bhavan 2.______ Monday. This was to trace the 3._______ of the "very important horse" which 4._______ reported missing on Sunday. The dog picked 5._______ the scent on some traces of 6._______ and ran a few yards before losing the 7._______.

 

Type of Questions: Objective type of questions
Examples: Relation test/Analogy test

They test your ability to see a relationship between two words and to recognize a similar ... analogy  and answers

Example

Action: Noun : : Beautiful: ………………….(Adjective)

Big : small: : short: ……………………(long)

Winter is to summer as cold is to

(A) Wet   (B) Future   (C) Hot   (D) Freezing   (E) Spring

 

 

Type of Questions: Objective type of questions
Examples: Very short answer-one word/sentence questions

Write full form of M.A.

When did we get freedom?

Who is the poet of ‘Ode to a nightingale ? (John Keats)

Where is The Tajmahal located?

Transformation exercises. (Change voice)

Who is the father of our nation?

 

 

 

Type of Questions: Objective type of questions
Examples: Fill in the blanks

Fill in the blanks means filling the blank with the appropriate word according to the sentence so that it senses both grammatically and semantically. Can give options/hints

Every human being is ________to the Almighty for his actions on earth.

Faithful

Accountable

Liable

Approach

 

 

 

Type of Questions: Objective type of questions
Examples: Fill in the blanks

I am……………..teacher. (a, an, the)

By the end of this month, Mr. Shah…………..his career as director. (start)

……………………learning is a dangerous thing. (little, a little, few)

Tell me the year……………..Mahatma Gandhi died. (when, where, how)

 

 

 

 

Type of Questions: Objective type of questions
Examples: Matching pair

 

 

Type of Questions: Objective type of questions
Examples: Matching pair

 

Match the word on the left to the word with the opposite meaning.

fat              old

young       tall

dangerous             thin

short          safe

Type of Questions: Objective type of questions
Examples: Arranging the sentences, words in order

Arrange the following sentence in proper order based on the lesson text.

1. The king hid the princess on the top of a mountain. [ ]

2. The Bigger belly drank the whole lake. [ ]

3. Prince Sohansen wanted to marry the beautiful princess. [ ]

4. Longer legs ran faster than the wind. [ ]

5. The prince and the princess were happy. [ ]

6. The king set three difficult tests.

Type of Questions: Objective type of questions
Examples: Arranging the sentences, words in order

Arrange the words to make affirmative sentences.

    go / now / home / will / I →

I will go home now.

 

 

Type of Questions: Objective type of questions
Examples: Arranging the sentences, words in order

Type of Questions: Objective type of questions
Examples: Multiple choice questions

 

 

Type of Questions: Objective type of questions
Examples: Multiple choice questions

     New York is ----- large city

a

an

the

no article

Type of Questions: Objective type of questions
Examples: Classification questions

Classification of verbs, nouns, adjectives etc. categorization.

Also type of sentences according to tense etc…

Type of pronouns. 

Words with similar pronunciation. Rhyming words.

Animals, fruits, birds, vehicles any objects category.

 

Type of Questions: Objective type of questions
Examples: Classification questions

 

Type of Questions: Objective type of questions
Examples: True/false questions

You need to tell if the sentence is true or false grammatically or based on the text.

Sohansen went to the princess. [ ]

Longer legs came back with the prince. [ ]

 

Type of Questions: Objective type of questions
Examples: Crossword puzzle

 

 

Type of Questions: Objective type of questions
Examples: Identify pictures/words

 

Type of Questions: Objective type of questions
Advantages

Quick and easy to score, by hand or electronically(OMR).

Can be written so that they test a wide range of higher-order thinking skills

Can cover lots of content areas on a single exam almost detailed part of syllabus. 

 

 

Type of Questions: Objective type of questions
Advantages

Objective questions are very good at examining recall of facts, knowledge and application of terms, and questions that require short text or numerical responses and particular information.

These questions are free from the personal factors of the teacher. Objective evaluation. The mood of the examiner in no way affects scoring because answers are fixed.

 

 

Type of Questions: Objective type of questions
Advantages

This test items are educative for the pupils as they are more interested in answering this type of test. They make them aware of minute details of the content make more studious.

Objective type test items discourage cramming and encourage thinking, observation, accuracy and scrutiny.

These test items are more reliable, scientific and valid compared to other types.

Type of Questions: Objective type of questions
Limitations

Unprepared students have the opportunity to guess, and with guesses that are right, they get credit for things they don’t know. Special seating arrangement required.  Malpractice in exam, cheating)

It takes too much time and skill to construct (especially good questions)

Encourage students to memorize terms and details, so that their understanding of the content remains superficial.

This test items don’t put stress on the ability of organization of subject matter learnt by pupils.

They do not test student’s ability to express and organise ideas.

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