A modern look at examinations

The reasons for the reluctance of teachers and external examiners to accept the modern outlook on examining, despite the proven unreliability of traditional examinations, are briefly discussed and an outline is given of the procedures followed in constructing a modern examination. Emphasis is placed upon the need to prepare a plan of what the examination is to measure and the use of multiple-choice objective questions is put into perspective. While the advantage of increased reliability afforded by this type of question is pointed out, it is stressed that this should not be obtained at the expense of content validity.