"Data was collected from 376 students enrolled in one of two Psychology lectures at a large Austrian University at the beginning of the semester and post-exam in a real-life setting. Multilevel analyses revealed that, overall students achieved higher scores on FR items compared to MC items. Less test anxiety, higher conscientiousness, and more study time significantly increased student examination performance. Lecture attendance impacted performance differently according to the exam items´ response format: Students who attended more lectures scored higher on the MC items compared to the FR items. Risk propensity exhibited no significant effect on exam scores. The results offer deeper insights into the nuanced interplay between academic performance, and other influencing factors with the aim of establishing more reliable and valid performance tests in the future...

It was quite surprising to discover that students performed better on the FR sections of the final exams in contrast to the MC sections. This finding defied the common trend observed in existing literature, which typically indicates that MC items tend to yield higher scores than FR items ..."

Tuulia Ortner, Verena Keneder, Sonja Breuer, Freya M. Gruber, Thomas Scherndl
Unraveling Performance on Multiple-Choice and Free-Response University Exams: A Multilevel Analysis of Study Time, Lecture Attendance and Personality Traits.
in: Psychology Test and Assessment Modeling, 2024.
https://doi.org/10.2440/001-0013