How Students Study for Three Types of Objective Tests

Abstract

Teachers in general are well aware of the fact that tests are powerful stimulants to study. What kinds of study are, on the other hand, moti vated by the several available types of test, is another matter. On this question the profession has as yet but little information. In a recent investigation1 it was shown that college students do not study in the same way for essay tests (the traditional type) as for ob jective tests. When they review for the former they look for the main points and endeavor to strengthen their grasp of subject-matter in large units taken as wholes. In reviewing for objective tests, on the contrary, they look for details and work with small units. The objective of the present investigation is to raise the same question in respect to three types of objective tests. Do students review for the listing recall type of objective test in the same manner as they review for completion or for true-false tests ? If they do not, what methods of study do they find especially well adapted to this type and to that type? When the evidence on these questions has been weighed, it may be possible to point out conclusions in respect to the use of different types of tests to which teachers should give consideration when they lay out their instruc tional plans. The subjects of the present investigation were 135 students, mainly juniors and seniors, in five classes in psychology during the summer ses sion of 1932 at the University of Alabama. At the beginning of the term each of these classes was informed that its first, second, and third tests would be of the listing recall, completion, and true-false types of objective tests, respectively. Each student was given a mimeographed sheet con taining six or eight sample questions of each kind. Name the three major types of human behavior (with three blank lines under the state ment and a reference to the textbook in which the question is answered) is a typical sample, though one of the shortest, of the kinds of questions which made up what is called in this study the listing recall type. The