Dear Julie: I just wanted you to know how impressed we all are with your 2014 English 12 results. Finally, the B.C. Ministry of Education has realized that a true grasp of language proficiency can be measured quickly with a simple multiple-choice question test as a Grade 12 final.
And so you finally squeaked through an English exam.
Well done, Julie, because multiple-choice tests are more than simply a matter of recognizing true statements and recalling textbook material. Multiple-choice questions require some distinctions between correct and nearly correct statements and that makes them a perfect vehicle for testing skills with our sophisticated language which is, apparently, one of the most difficult to master.
All that guff you’ve heard for years from artsy-fartsy English teachers about being able to express your knowledge in sentence and paragraph form has now been put in its proper place — out the exam-room door.
All that baloney about grammatically correct sentences, paragraphs and theme development that so plagued you, exam after exam, is no longer cause for concern.
Topic sentences leading to logical paragraph exposition of an initial theme, development of a series of paragraphs to the final conclusion — it was all the curse of my education.
The whole notion of using a thesaurus to find the correctly nuanced word to express an idea — that was cheating, wasn’t it? I mean, you can’t use a thesaurus in an exam room anyway, so what was the point of using one at all?
The most annoying part of English classes for me was when they tried to engage me with literature. I can remember various English teachers burbling on about the wealth of language in Shakespeare’s plays and the “zen-like esthetic” of poetry by e.e. cummings, whoever he was.
Then there was the “essay form.” They tried to sell it to us as some kind of ultimate example of how to translate thought into effective written form. Of course, then we had to try to write an “essay.”
There are always those misguided souls, nearly all those same English teachers, who cringe at the thought of knowledge of and facility with English being measured by multiple choice.
Multiple-choice tests, they say, are best adapted for testing well-defined or lower-order skills. Problem-solving and higher-order reasoning skills are better assessed through short-answer and essay tests, as if essays are any evidence of anything except perseverance to the end of the page.
Critics claim that multiple-choice tests are often chosen, not because of the type of knowledge being assessed, but because they are more affordable for testing a large number of students as cheaply as possible, but after all, isn’t that what we are all about — getting testing over and done with in the least complicated and cost-effective way possible?
The term “multiple guess” has been used to describe this scenario because test-takers might guess.
Julie, I’m quite certain that, even though English exams have always been a challenge for you, guessing has never been a part of that.
The “essay exam” promoters also try to make the case that even if students have some knowledge of a question, they receive no credit for knowing that information if they select the wrong multiple-choice answer.
Questions that require an answer in sentences or even paragraphs, they claim, might allow an examinee to demonstrate partial understanding of the subject and receive partial credit.
Piffle.
The critics of multiple-choice tests always suggest that a student who is incapable of answering a particular question can simply select a random answer and still have a chance of receiving a mark for it. It is common practice for students with no time left to give all remaining questions random answers in the hope that they will get at least some of them right.
I’m sure, Julie, that this formed no part of your test results.
Be assured that the rumour about some out-of-province colleges and universities looking askance at B.C.’s 2014 English 12 results as meeting entrance requirements is also duplicitous (that means “wrong”).
Again, congratulations, Julie, for finally passing an English exam.
Uncle Geoff
Geoff Johnson is a retired superintendent of schools. He taught English 12.
