The relationship between classified difficulty and implausible distractors in multiple-choice questions
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J. Alexander Smith
Oklahoma City University Meinders School of Business Oklahoma City, OK, USA John R. Dickinson University of Windsor Windsor, Ontario N9B 3P4 Canada Corresponding Author: J. Alexander Smith, asmith@okcu.edu |
ABSTRACT
Published banks of multiple-choice questions are ubiquitous, the questions in those banks often being classified into levels of difficulty. The specific level of difficulty into which a question is classified might or should be a function of the question’s substance. Possibly, though, insubstantive aspects of the question, such as the incidence of incorrect answers that are readily dismissed, also affect the difficulty level into which a question is classified. The present research investigates the relationship between classified question difficulty and the incidence of implausible incorrect answer options.
Keywords: multiple-choice assessment, AACSB, implausible incorrect answers
Published banks of multiple-choice questions are ubiquitous, the questions in those banks often being classified into levels of difficulty. The specific level of difficulty into which a question is classified might or should be a function of the question’s substance. Possibly, though, insubstantive aspects of the question, such as the incidence of incorrect answers that are readily dismissed, also affect the difficulty level into which a question is classified. The present research investigates the relationship between classified question difficulty and the incidence of implausible incorrect answer options.
Keywords: multiple-choice assessment, AACSB, implausible incorrect answers
Preferred Citation:
Smith, J. A. and Dickinson, J. R. (2017). The relationship between classified difficulty and implausible distractors in multiple-choice questions. International Journal for Business Education, 157, 9 - 19.
Smith, J. A. and Dickinson, J. R. (2017). The relationship between classified difficulty and implausible distractors in multiple-choice questions. International Journal for Business Education, 157, 9 - 19.
