Multiple Choice

Multiple choice is a form of assessment in which respondents are asked to select the best possible answer (or answers) out of the choices from a list. The multiple choice format is most frequently used in educational testing, in market research, and in elections, when a person chooses between multiple candidates, parties, or policies. Multiple choice testing is particularly popular in the United States. If guessing an answer, there's usually a 25 percent chance of getting it correct on a 4 answer choice question.[1] Although E L Thorndike developed an early multiple choice test, Frederick J Kelly was the first to use such items as part of a large scale assessment.[2] While Director of the Training School at Kansas State Normal School (now Emporia State University) in 1915, he developed and administered the Kansas Silent Reading Test. Soon after, Kelly became the third Dean of the College of Education at the University of Kansas. The first all multiple choice, large scale assessment was the Army Alpha, used to assess the intelligence and more specifically the aptitudes of World War I military recruits. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_choice

Jan'2015: Audrey Watters on its history.