Objective Questions: Meaning, Importance, & Benefits

The most fundamental kind of inquiry occurs through objective questions, usually referred to as fact or statement questions. Simple factual responses are all that are required in response to an objective question.

A great example of an objective question is “What is your favorite color?” or “What is your favorite food?” or “Do you have a pet?”. Asking these types of questions will help you explore what someone’s favorite thing to do might be.

This article explores the importance of objective questions, the benefits of objective tests, and some disadvantages associated with objective questions.

What are objective questions?

Questions that have a yes-or-no response without any conditions, restrictions, or constraints are considered objective questions. 

OBJECTIVE QUESTIONS - LMSHERO

Questions that can also be answered with certainty as being true, untrue, right or wrong are known as objective questions. Asking someone about their home address or what they purchased from your store are two examples of objective questions. 

This nevertheless allows for a wide range of numerical and textual question formats, including but not limited to multiple-choice questions (MCQs), fill-in-the-blank questions, calculations, mathematical derivations, and short essay questions.

What is the importance of objective questions?

For students to have a solid foundation and knowledge, objective assessments are helpful in ensuring that students understand the subject’s fundamentals

They are also helpful due to their capacity to quickly test a large sample of the curriculum. can be simply recognized, with the help of technology.

They are typically better at evaluating “low order” thinking abilities, such as recall, fundamental comprehension, and possibly application (of numerical procedures for example). A diagnostic evaluation also frequently works best with objective exams.

What are some benefits of objective questions? 

In courses with large student populations, objective tests can lessen the workload associated with marking while still offering a valid assessment technique. It also allows instructors to swiftly evaluate a wide range of topics and give both faculty and students immediate feedback.

Other benefits include; 

  • It is simple to standardize and, in many cases, even automate the marking of objective tests.
  • Enables educators to give staff and students rapid input on a variety of topics in a timely manner.
  • Objective questions make computer-aided assessment platforms for quantitative subjects easy to create numerical, symbolic, and graphical questions to assess students.
  • Can lessen the amount of work required for marking while still offering a valid assessment technique, especially for courses with a large student population.

Disadvantages of objective question tests?

  • Feedback on these exams could be significantly reduced without computer-aided assessment platforms.
  • Successfully answering objective tests can be challenging and time- and effort-intensive.
  • To be successful and accepted by the academic community, objective exams must be used in a manner that strikes a balance with other forms of assessment.
  • The issue of students guessing is frequently brought up or mentioned in relation to the usage of objective assessments. There is a possibility of students passing an objective test by guessing alone.

How do you prepare for objective tests?

Recognition, understanding, and memorization of the material are requirements for preparing and passing objective tests. 

Memorization is necessary to answer objective inquiries with brief, precise responses. 

In order to comprehend why some potential multiple-choice answers could be wrong, you as a student must have a better comprehension of each phrase or topic.

FAQs

Why are objective questions used in exams?

Due to its simplicity in preparation and administration, speed in marking, and ability to yield a quantitative and tangible result, objective exams are very common. They often cover a wider range of topics than essay tests. Each question has a single, unchanging correct response.

How are objective questions better than subjective questions?

The preparation, administration, and accurate scoring of subjective examinations are more difficult and expensive than those using objective questions. Because evaluation takes time, it is challenging to administer subjective questions to a large group of students.

What are the main types of objective questions?

There are various types of objective questions, including multiple-choice, matching, true-false, factual questions, and sentence completion. They often cover a wider range of topics than essay tests. Each question has a single, unchanging correct response.

Conclusion

Asking objective questions doesn’t just help with understanding the recipients, they can also help you tailor how you relate with people.

No one will argue that these questions are an important part of every interview. That’s because they prevent bias and ensure true objectivity.

Unfortunately, these questions are lacking when it comes to assessing critical thinking and argumentation. Because they require short factual answers, they cannot help an inquirer to understand the recipient’s position and think about it from another perspective.

This is where subjective questions come in as they rely more on opinions and a person’s perspective on a topic. Learn more about subjective questions and how they differ from objective questions. 

I hope you found this article helpful.

Thanks for reading.