OCTOBER. 1950
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A NEW APPROACH TO THE PREPARATION OF OBJECTIVE TESTS E. F. DEGERING h o u r Research Foundation, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Illinois
THEcooperative objective unit tests in organic chemistry, in their present form, are the result of fifteen years of experience in the compilation and use of tests of this general type. I t is now believed, accordingly, t,hat these tests: (1)measure the relative achievement of the students in any course in organic chemistry, (2) provoke thinking, (3) stimulate reasoning, (4) have a broader coverage than an ordinary essay type of examination, (5) conserve classroom testing time, (6) save grading time, (7) permit the instructor to use his time and energy other than on the preparation of tests, (8) combine the experience of others in the construction of tests of this type, and (9) serve as a teaching as well as a testing service. I n the form used in the current series an I. B. M. answer strip is an integral part of each unit, thus permitting of both economical and rapid grading by use of eit,her a mechanical key or an International Cooperative Objactivs Unit Test Strip Business Machine. In the earlier series, grading by use of an I. B. M. over the years has indicated that a separate answer machine required the use of an I. B. M. answer sheet. sheet causes confusion on the part of the students and This is expensive, for these sheets cost about one cent results in the misplacement of some answers on the each, and it is inconvenient in that the answer spacee answer sheet. are not directly opposite the questions. ~ x ~ e r i e n c e I n a later development, the questions have been
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mimeographed on an I. B. M. sheet, with the answer strip along the right-hand margin. Such a procedure is satisfactory except that it is frequently difficult to fit the question to the corresponding space on the answer sheet, and the I. B. M. strip sheets prepared for this purpose are also expensive. The latest development involves printing an I. B. M. answer strip along the right-hand margin of the sheet at the same time the tests are printed. This requires the use of a good quality of paper, a precision job of
JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL EDUCATION
both printing and trimming, and the printing of a sufficiently large number of tests to justify the extra precision required for a printing job of this type. By the preparation of about 3500 such tests for the 194S50 Cooperative Objective Unit Test Series in Organic Chemistry, it was possible to distribute the completed tests, consisting of twenty multiple choice items, a t less than one cent each. A reduced strip of such a test is indicated in the accompanying illustration.
