Choices vs. Analysis

Everyone taking the admission tests for any Graduate course or Masters course,particularly in a country other than India,is familiar with the Multiple choice based examination pattern. Back home in India many esteemed colleges still have a traditional testing approach of Q & As. As a person taking the test I always felt more comfortable with the Multiple choices, especially because it doesnot require me to write a 2 page explanation of a simple conclusion. In additon,college tests proved that if a person has got a good handwriting and a gift of managing all the time to use stencils and color pencils etc, he would always manage the same marks as I no matter the actual content of his essay!

Of course there is always an advantage of having the essay questions since they really prove the extent that the subject has gone into the mind of a student. Whereas working with the multiple choices can be a matter of good luck at times, which can be bettered with the use of intelligent guessing.

Everything seen and heard and gone through , the Computer Adaptive Tests are worth the praise. A seemingly simple set of questions can actually be so confusuing and misleading that people end up with blunders. An algorithm on which these CATs are based would be one intelligent piece of work.