Multiple worries

For all their niceties, MCQs have their share of problems

Back then, exams had no multiple-choice questions. All answers had to be written in full, discursively and elaborately. Students joked that the evaluator measured the answers in “cubits” (elbow length) and gave marks proportionately. Alternatively, the evaluator weighed each answer-booklet in kilograms! Students made tall claims that could not be verified! Apparently, they inflated the answers by peppering the middle paragraphs with gibberish — juicy dialogues from Bollywood or cricket-based drivel.

There was an element of subjectivity in the evaluation. Cosmetics overrode content — someone with a pretty handwriting invariably scored more marks. If you scored badly, you squarely blamed the evaluator. “I am sure he had a quarrel with his wife! No wonder he gave me such poor marks,” was one excuse.

To remove this bias, the powers-that-be came up with the concept of multiple-choice questions (MCQs). Now, you do not have to write a single sentence. You just select the correct option for each question. Thanks to the IT revolution, the evaluation is automated. Within minutes of completion of the exam, the result is available along with a bell-curve on where you fall in the spectrum. The MCQs have taken over all exams across the world.

For all their niceties, they have their share of problems. You know the subject well, but the listed options for questions are vague and incomprehensible. To complicate it, some MCQs ask the student to choose “all options” for a given question, leaving you racked with doubt. Sometimes, the answers need to be marked on a separate sheet, leading to “block shift” blunders. You miss a particular question on the answer sheet and all answers are now shifted and wrong! The automated evaluation shows no mercy. But for tricksters and cheats, MCQs are like manna from heaven — someone simply dictated 1-A, 2-C and so on.

MCQs stoke the gambler in you — rather than leave a question unanswered, choose any arbitrary option! To uproot this malaise, MCQs came up with “negative marking” for wrong answers. And now, you have a whole new problem. It looks better to leave the entire paper unanswered and score a zero, than choose incorrect options that leave you with a negative balance!

The list is endless. We would go far enough to say that MCQs polarise society by forcing you to answer “yes” or “no” with no scope for a “maybe”!

They also reinforce a world becoming increasingly transactional and devoid of feeling. Back then, students appealed to the examiner’s compassion with a personal note on the paper, “Madam, I am writing the exam for the fifth time! Please save me!” MCQs have none of this.