Partial-Credit Scoring Methods for Multiple-Choice Tests

This review covers multiple-choice response and scoring methods that attempt to capture information about an examinee's degree or level of knowledge with respect to each item and use this information to produce a total test score. The period covered is mainly from the early 1970s onward; earlier reviews are summarized. It is concluded that there is little to be gained from the complex responding and scoring schemes that have been investigated. Although some of them have confirmed potential to increase internal-consistency reliability, this outcome is often obtained only at the expense of validity. Also, the extra responding time required by some methods would permit lengthening a conventional multiple-choice test sufficiently to obtain the same reliability improvement. Partial-credit response and scoring methods that continue to be used will probably earn this status due to secondary characteristics such as providing feedback to enhance learning.