Examples of GOOD and BAD Matching Test Item

Matching Test Item

In general, matching item consist of a column of stimulus presented on left side of the page and a column of response placed on the right side of the page. Students are required to match the response associated with a given stimulus. Below is an example of a matching item where column A represents the response and Column B represents the response.

Column A= Stimulus	Column B=Response
_______________	______________________

Examples of  Good and Bad Matching Items

1.Faulty  instructions

 Include instruction which clearly state the basics for matching the stimuli with the responses. Explain whether or not the response can be used more than once and indicate where to write the answer.

Example of a bad instruction and a good instruction.

Bad instruction:

Match the following.

Good instruction:

On the line to the left of each identifying location and characteristics in column I, write the letter of the country in column II that is best defined. Each country in column II may be used more than once.

2. Unrelated topics

When constructing a matching test item, only one topic or only one issue should be focused on at a time.

-Example of a bad matching test item and a good matching test item.

Bad matching test item:

Match the following.

Column A	Column B
Eat	Slept
Sleep	Ran
Sing	Had eaten
Run	Singing

This is an example of a bad matching test item because it focuses on more than one type of tenses although all of it is included in grammar.

Good matching test item

Match the verbs from column A to their respective forms in past tense in Column B

Column A	Column B
Run	Ate
Sleep	Sung
Sing	Ran
Eat	Slept

3.Mixing matching with completion.

Match item should be solely focused in matching

Example of bad matching item

Instruction:

 On the line to the left of each statement write the letter of the atomic

particles from the right hand column that the statement describes. Use each particle

only once.

Column A	Column B
1.An ____orbits the nucleus.	A. Electron
2.Positively charged particles are called _____.	B. Neutron
3.A _____ has no charge	C. Protons
4.The _____ is located in the center of an atom	D. Nucleus
	E. Ion

 This matching item is not ideal because instead of matching, the students are required to fill in blank and this may mislead the students and confuse them. This makes this matching item not reliable .

Example of a good matching item

Instruction:

Match the following definition from column A to the most accurate words in column B.

Column A	Column B
1. Feeling or showing sorrow; unhappy	witchcraft
2. The process of increasing in physical size	growl
3.  Make a low guttural sound of hostility in the throat	sad
4. The practice of magic, esp. black magic; the use of spells and the invocation of spirits	growth