Lindsay Dodson XXXXXXXXXX:35pm Jan 7 at 12:35pm In your own words, explain what objective and subjective tests questions are. Compare and contrast the use of both types of test questions according to...

Lindsay Dodson

In your own words, explain what objective and subjective tests questions are. Compare and contrast the use of both types of test questions according to the following:

1. Sources/types of measurement most commonly used


2. Situations in which you would use one type over the other or a combination of the two


3. Value of the data


4. Strengths and weaknesses related to scoring and interpreting the results


5. General limitations of each type

Test questions can really only be subjective or objective with a mix of the two sometimes present. The answers given to the questions are then analyzed based on the guidelines and what the objective of the questions was. Objective test questions less opinion based and more correct or incorrect answer. Comparison to subjective questions where you find explanations and even essays needed to answer these questions thoroughly. The more popular of the two tend to be objective because it is faster, easy, and requires less thought process to respond. Less room for interpretation because it is a simple true/false or yes/no answer. The strength of these tests would be quick and easy to interpret. Weakness would be you can leave out important elements of the research simply because you do not allow for any answers beyond the yes/no response. Limitations of this type of test would be not having enough information to be thorough, it is fast and easy but does not give you much information behind the answers. These are much more unbiased compared to subjective questions.

Whereas subjective questions are used heavily in qualitative research where they are seeking a participant’s specific opinion on certain matters. This is not always the case, but mostly for qualitative research. These tend to be much more time-consuming due to the length of response as well as the thought process to respond to the questions. They are also analyzed, but the end result is still somewhat subjective. You have to take the information presented and almost form your own opinion or interpretation of the results, which is not always concrete. A strength of this test would be allowing people to express their opinions however weakness is it is not concrete and still left open to interpretation which could create conflict in opinion. These are not very clear with the results and outcome at times. These can be assumption based. Opinions are not facts. A limitation of this test would be hard to complete online as they need very in-depth responses. The accuracy of this test could also be in question, I know you can have someone take this test then retake in 2 months, and based on the events surrounding them, opinions can change. How accurate would the information be at that point?

References:

Calyxpod,2019: “Pros and cons of objective tests vs subjective tests” retrieved from https://calyxpod.com/2019/pages/pros-and-cons-of-objective-tests-vs-subjective-tests/