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The authors examined how the grading scheme affects learning and students' reactions to the Immediate Feedback Assessment Technique (IFAT), an answer form providing immediate feedback on multiple-choice questions. Undergraduate students (N = 141) took a general-knowledge multiple-choice test of low, medium, or high difficulty. They used the IFAT with a number-correct (NC), partial-credit (PC), or correction-for-guessing (CG) grading scheme. After 1 week, they retook the test using a traditional response form with an NC scheme. When the authors used the NC or PC scheme for Test 1, the number of correct answers increased by more than 30% on Test 2. However, the increase was only about half as large with the CG scheme, suggesting that it interferes with the IFAT's learning benefits. Responses to questionnaire items provided no strong clues regarding the origin of this difference. Participants in all treatment conditions had positive attitudes toward the IFAT. (Contains 5 tables.)

The authors examined the relationship between the reactions of undergraduate students to using the Immediate Feedback Assessment Technique (IFAT), an answer form that provides immediate feedback on multiple-choice questions, for the first time on a major examination and their levels of test anxiety and trait anxiety. They also assessed whether students with higher levels of test anxiety and trait anxiety might be disadvantaged relative to other students by use of the IFAT in a testing situation. They found that preference of undergraduates (N =185) for the IFAT was not related to test anxiety, nor did evidence indicate that the IFAT put students with higher levels of test anxiety at a disadvantage with respect to test performance. Using the IFAT did not generally increase test-related anxiety, and for a majority of students, immediate feedback actually reduced it. Nineteen percent of students felt that immediate feedback interfered with their test performance but would nevertheless still prefer to use the IFAT in future tests. Potential concerns that test-anxious students may either dislike the IFAT or be disadvantaged by its use appear unwarranted and should not deter instructors from adopting the IFAT.

Undergraduates completed a questionnaire after using the Immediate Feedback Assessment Technique (IFAT), a commercially available answer form for multiple-choice (MC) testing that can be used easily and conveniently with large classes. This simple new technique for MC testing provides immediate feedback for each item in an answer-until-correct format and permits the earning of partial credit when the student's initial response is incorrect. Reaction to the IFAT was extremely positive, with students saying it was easy to use and contributed to their learning, and they indicated a strong desire to use the IFAT for all MC tests. Liking for the IFAT was not related to either personal characteristics or test performance variables, indicating that it has broad appeal to students.