How Students can Use Multiple Choice Questions as a Tool to Self-Assess Learning Sessions?
According to the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s National Library of Medicine (NIH/NLM), “Self-assessment can increase the interest and motivation level of students for the subjects leading to enhanced learning and better academic performance, helping them in development of critical skills for analysis of their own work.”
A student cannot retain knowledge over a longer period of time without assessing individual learning sessions frequently and effectively. A student can assess her learning sessions using various types of questions — subjective, objective, and multiple-choice questions. Unlike subjective and objective questions, multiple-choice questions (MCQ) enable students to assess learning sessions on their own without putting extra time and effort.
The MCQ allows students to test if they have understood the topic clearly and retained the key information effectively by selecting answers instead of writing answers. However, the students must answer MCQ covering all aspects of the topic to self-assess the learning session accurately. There are a number of reasons why students must leverage MCQ as a robust tool to self-assess learning sessions in the most effective way.
5 Reasons Why Students Must Self-Assess Learning Sessions Using Multiple Choice Questions
1. No Need to Write Answers
Unlike subjective questions, objective questions require students to write a single and definite answer. MCQ is one of the various types of objective questions. But they do not require students to write answers like other types of objective questions. They enable students to assess the knowledge retained after studying a topic or chapter simply by selecting from a set of answers. Hence, it becomes easier for students to assess learning sessions quickly and frequently.
2. Apply Fundamental Knowledge
While learning a topic or understanding a concept, the engineering students on applying the fundamental knowledge accurately. The MCQ help students to understand various aspects of knowledge-based subjects elaborately. Hence, an engineering student can retain and apply the fundamental knowledge unambiguously by answering the right MCQs. In addition to facilitating self-assessment, MCQ also enables students to learn how to apply fundamental knowledge precisely.
3. Quick and Automatic Marking
The MCQ available on leading digital platforms support automatic marking. They calculate scores or marks automatically based on the questions answered by the students. Hence, it becomes easier for students to assess their learning sessions based on precise scores or marks. When the score is high, the student can easily move to the next topic. Likewise, a student can allocate more time to relearn the same topic when the score is low.
4. Clearly-Defined Instructions
Often students fail multiple-choice tests as they do not read the instructions clearly before answering questions. The MCQs designed by skilled teachers always recommend students to understand the instructions clearly before answering the questions. Hence, a student can easily learn the right way to assess learning sessions by spending some time reading the instructions.
5. Promote Higher-Order Thinking
The students can use MCQ as a robust tool to assess if they have memorized important facts and information after a learning session. But many experienced teachers these days use MCQ as an effective tool for facilitating and promoting high-order thinking. In addition to keeping in mind the chapter, they emphasize application, evaluation, and integration of the knowledge. The thought-provoking MCQ helps students to boost their analytical skills while assessing learning sessions.
In the digital age, students can easily self-assess learning sessions using MCQ prepared by experienced teachers available on popular digital platforms like LectureNotes. LectureNotes enable students to learn various topics elaborately by accessing study notes and video lectures provided by eminent teachers. At the same time, it helps students to assess every learning session using a variety of MCQ. Hence, a student can easily measure the knowledge retained after each learning session by accessing thought-provoking multiple-choice questions.
