Effects of Student-Written Questions on Student Test Performance

Abstract

Effects of student-written test questions on student test performance were examined in an Introductory Psychology class. Before each of three tests, randomly assigned students wrote essay questions, multiple-choice questions, or no questions. All tests contained essay and multiple-choice items but no questions written by students. Question writers performed significantly better than nonwriters on the first two tests; the difference on the third test was marginally significant. No differences were found between students who wrote essay and those who wrote multiple-choice questions. Question writing appears to be an effective study technique.