I have heard that multiple-choice questions (MCQs) are biased in favour of males. What is the evidence for this?
The largest controlled study looking at the topic of MCQs and gender bias was conducted by the Educational Testing Service (Cole, 1997) over four years with 400 different tests and more than 1500 data sets involving millions of students ranging in age from Grade 4 (9 years old) to graduate school, including those taking the MCAT (Medical College Admissions Test). A clear finding was that asking students to produce the answer rather than select the answer (constructed response versus multiple choice format) did not produce different gender effects when the same question was asked in different formats. (Other studies with the same results include De Mars, 1998; Hamilton and Snow, 1998; Ryan and Fan, 1996.) However, in the constructed answer questions, answers requiring written reponses favoured females and ones requiring the production of a figure or the interpretation of graphical information favoured males. This kind of content effect may be of more importance than the question format.
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