Abstract

Teacher-made tools are used for a specific class only, whereas standardized tools are used for a large number of students. Educational technologies have changed the scenario of developing assessment tools. The main objectives of education tools are to help teachers decide what they want their students to learn and to make sure they learn it. The selection of item format for a test is not an easy task. It largely depends on the objectives of the test, but merits and demerits of an item format also influence the choice of format. In recent years, multiple-choice item formats, alone or with other item formats, have become popular in assessments. According to Spinner (2007), multiple-choice tests are objective, easy to score, and cost-effective, so they may be the only viable option in some circumstances. Rodriguez (2002) says that multiple-choice items are generally the optimal choice because of the strong equivalence in multiple-choice (MC) items and constructed-response (CR) items and the cost of administration of CR items. According to Abu-Alhija (2007), the format of the tasks on large-scale tests is predominantly multiple-choice, as accuracy of test scores is most likely to be achieved by this format.