MCQ - Oust the Incorrect

An obvious criticism of the multiple-choice question (MCQ) format is susceptibility to lucky guessing. A subtle criticism is its all or nothing scoring. MCQ makes no attempt to discover what unsuccessful candidates do know about an item. An alternative method for MCQs is to ask each examinee to mark all options that are definitely incorrect.

Scoring for "eliminate the incorrect" is simple. When an examinee marks the "correct" option as incorrect, the score is 0. Otherwise the score is the number of "incorrect" options marked as incorrect. For a 5 option item, possible scores are 0 (no options marked or "correct" option marked) to 4 (all "incorrect" options marked). This partial credit approach discourages guessing, and enables the examinee to gain credit for whatever partially correct solution is obtained. Here is an example with a score of 3:

Which cities are definitely not the capital of Peru?
  [x] A.  Bogota
  [x] B.  Caracas
  [ ] C.  Colon
  [ ] D.  Lima
  [x] E.  Montevideo

In a 60 item verbal comprehension test the average point-biserial correlation for conventional scoring was .41. For revised scoring, the average item score-total score correlation was .51. Person separation reliability improved from .91 to .95 and separation from 3.3 to 4.5. This improvement is equivalent to adding 50 more items to the test.

The next stage is to construct a measurement model for this response structure and to explore alternative scoring strategies. I welcome comments.

MCQ - Oust the Incorrect, Y-Y Wu … Rasch Measurement Transactions, 1991, 5:2 p. 143

Rasch Books and Publications
Invariant Measurement: Using Rasch Models in the Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences, 2nd Edn. George Engelhard, Jr. & Jue Wang	Applying the Rasch Model (Winsteps, Facets) 4th Ed., Bond, Yan, Heene	Advances in Rasch Analyses in the Human Sciences (Winsteps, Facets) 1st Ed., Boone, Staver	Advances in Applications of Rasch Measurement in Science Education, X. Liu & W. J. Boone	Rasch Analysis in the Human Sciences (Winsteps) Boone, Staver, Yale
Introduction to Many-Facet Rasch Measurement (Facets), Thomas Eckes	Statistical Analyses for Language Testers (Facets), Rita Green	Invariant Measurement with Raters and Rating Scales: Rasch Models for Rater-Mediated Assessments (Facets), George Engelhard, Jr. & Stefanie Wind	Aplicação do Modelo de Rasch (Português), de Bond, Trevor G., Fox, Christine M	Appliquer le modèle de Rasch: Défis et pistes de solution (Winsteps) E. Dionne, S. Béland
Exploring Rating Scale Functioning for Survey Research (R, Facets), Stefanie Wind	Rasch Measurement: Applications, Khine	Winsteps Tutorials - free Facets Tutorials - free	Many-Facet Rasch Measurement (Facets) - free, J.M. Linacre	Fairness, Justice and Language Assessment (Winsteps, Facets), McNamara, Knoch, Fan
Other Rasch-Related Resources: Rasch Measurement YouTube Channel
Rasch Measurement Transactions & Rasch Measurement research papers - free	An Introduction to the Rasch Model with Examples in R (eRm, etc.), Debelak, Strobl, Zeigenfuse	Rasch Measurement Theory Analysis in R, Wind, Hua	Applying the Rasch Model in Social Sciences Using R, Lamprianou	El modelo métrico de Rasch: Fundamentación, implementación e interpretación de la medida en ciencias sociales (Spanish Edition), Manuel González-Montesinos M.
Rasch Models: Foundations, Recent Developments, and Applications, Fischer & Molenaar	Probabilistic Models for Some Intelligence and Attainment Tests, Georg Rasch	Rasch Models for Measurement, David Andrich	Constructing Measures, Mark Wilson	Best Test Design - free, Wright & Stone Rating Scale Analysis - free, Wright & Masters
Virtual Standard Setting: Setting Cut Scores, Charalambos Kollias	Diseño de Mejores Pruebas - free, Spanish Best Test Design	A Course in Rasch Measurement Theory, Andrich, Marais	Rasch Models in Health, Christensen, Kreiner, Mesba	Multivariate and Mixture Distribution Rasch Models, von Davier, Carstensen

Forum

Rasch Measurement Forum to discuss any Rasch-related topic

Go to Top of Page
Go to index of all Rasch Measurement Transactions
AERA members: Join the Rasch Measurement SIG and receive the printed version of RMT
Some back issues of RMT are available as bound volumes
Subscribe to Journal of Applied Measurement

Go to Institute for Objective Measurement Home Page. The Rasch Measurement SIG (AERA) thanks the Institute for Objective Measurement for inviting the publication of Rasch Measurement Transactions on the Institute's website, www.rasch.org.

The URL of this page is www.rasch.org/rmt/rmt52d.htm

Website: www.rasch.org/rmt/contents.htm