Test Manuals and Test Wiseness

Abstract

Most college instructors that teach an introductory American government course use multiple choice questions on examinations. Do these instructors give the answers away during the examination? They may be doing so unintentionally. Furthermore, the manner in which they give away the answers may be helping a select group of students and penalizing others.Multiple choice questions may be written in such a way that students who are test-wise are given clues as to which answers are correct. Testwiseness has been defined as the ability to manifest test-taking skills which utilize the characteristics and formats of a test and/or test-taking situation in order to receive a score commensurate with the abilities being measured (Oakland & Weilert, 1971).