1- Objective tests are easy and quick to score by hand or electronically whereas subjective tests

cant be corrected electronically.

2- Subjective is less reliable
3- Objective questions relate to higher order thinking using interpretive questions.
4- Guessing could be eliminated by penalizing wrong answers
5- Premises are eqwual to responses so no guessing
6- True and false: put correct false statements

Subjective merits:

Essay tests are appropriate when:

 The group to be tested is small and the test is not to be reused

 You wish to encourage and reward the development of student skill in writing
 You are more interested in exploring student attitudes than in measuring his/her
achievement
Objective merits:

Objective tests are appropriate when:

 The group to be tested is large and the test may be reused.

 Highly reliable scores must be obtained as efficiently as possible.
 Impartiality of evaluation, fairness, and free from possible test scoring influences
are essential.

If you want the student to compare and contrast an issue taught during a history lesson,
open ended questions may be the best option to evaluate the student’s understanding
of the subject matter.

If you are seeking to measure the student’s reasoning skills, analysis skills, or general
comprehension of a subject matter, consider selecting primarily multiple choice
questions.

Objective tests are especially well suited to certain types of tasks. Because questions
can be designed to be answered quickly, they allow lecturers to test students on a wide
range of material. … Additionally, statistical analysis on the performance of individual
students, cohorts and questions is possible.
The capacity of objective tests to assess a wide range of learning is often
underestimated. Objective tests are very good at examining recall of facts, knowledge
and application of terms, and questions that require short text or numerical responses.
But a common worry is that objective tests cannot assess learning beyond basic
comprehension.

However, questions that are constructed imaginatively can challenge students and test
higher learning levels. For example, students can be presented with case studies or a
collection of data (such as a set of medical symptoms) and be asked to provide an
analysis by answering a series of questions…

categorization is dependent on the wording of the question. I see it as the wording

directing the answer, so when I see the question, I would consider the way a person
taking the test might approach it, if they are following directions.

For example, in trigonometry, a question like “Prove this identity” is pretty open-ended.
Proving identities means showing how one trig statement can be modified
mathematically into another. Students can approach the same problem differently,
which means I, as grader, have to be willing to read what they wrote and accept any
valid process. I can’t just expect them to do it the way I envisioned when I put the
problem on the test. This makes it subjective. I have to judge their choices.

But if I modify the question to something like “Prove this identity using the difference of
squares”, then I have narrowed down their choices considerably and it is reasonable for
me to expect the problem to be worked a certain way or ways. This makes it more
objective

Merits of Objective type tests:

This type of test items has the following merits:
1. These test items are suitable for the modern educational practices,
as there lies more objectivity in scoring.

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2. These questions are free from the personal factors of the teacher.

3. The mood of the examiner in no way affects scoring.

4. This test item enables the learners to become thorough in the
subject matter. The reason is that for a little writing he can devote his
time to thought and can there by answer many questions that he has to
write his answers out at length.

5. Chance elimination is reduced in this test. Although intellectual

guessing carries for the pupil.

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6. It is easy to scoring.

7. Pupils like this type of test item as there is no chance for the teacher
to show personal bias or favoritism.

8. This test items are educative for the pupils as they are more
interested in answering this type of test.

9. Objective type test items discourage cramming and encourage

thinking, observation and scrutiny.

10. These test items are more reliable and valid.

11. Objective type test items can be standardized easily by appl3dng

before hand to a large number of students of the same age group
before the actual examination.

Demerits of Objective type tests:

The objective type tests have the following limitations or
demerits:
1. This test items don’t put stress on the ability of organisation of
subject matter learnt by pupils.

2. Pupils don’t get scope for making comparisons.

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3. Pupils aren’t asked to summaries the material or to make

applications of principles and of course which are valuable abilities in
this type of test items.

4. This type of test items isn’t used for the purpose of diagnosing the
learning difficulties of the pupils.

5. It is commonly said that the objective type test items fail to check
cramming.

6. Once an objective test is standardized the teachers will coach the

pupils on the test. After this the test will be meaningless and useless
for the pupils.

7. Like essay type of test, this test items also fail to test the character
building aspects.

8. It is often argued that preparation and use of objective type test

items is an expensive and timely affair.
Demerit of subjective: Students attempting the same question might vary the length of
their answers bringing more subjectivity to the exam.