ABSTRACT
The formal summative evaluation is a wonderful opportunity for learners to show what they know. It is not formative. It is a sampling of what knowledge and skills have been acquired. Formal evaluations can focus on concepts and theory level knowledge because it is assumed that the lower level knowledge such as facts and vocabulary have been already assessed. For elements of learner time and instructor time, multiple choice questions and short answer essays are preferred ways of assessing knowledge, especially if a performance element is involved in the evaluation. Multiple choice questions and answers should be straight-forward and should not cause confusion. Making them tricky actually skews the results.
