Shareware Spotlight Featuring Break Out Plus

In The Spotlight: Break Out Plus and Power UpPlus

by Al Harberg of DP Directory

Quantity and Quality are Scored Separately on Multiple-Choice Tests

Break Out Plus and Power Up Plus at a glance:

Multiple-choice tests are alive and well, and they continue to drive both teachers and students crazy:

• Teachers are frustrated because their students' test scores don't give them a clue about what their students actually know. Today's multiple-choice tests don't tell teachers when students are knowledgeable, and when they're guessing.
• Students are tired of being cheated out of a passing grade. They want to take the gambling out of multiple-choice tests, and get credit for reporting what they actually know.

Everybody benefits when we replace today's flawed multiple-choice system with a regimen that measures both the quantity and quality of students' understanding of the subject matter.

Knowledge and Judgment Scoring (KJS) makes it easier for teachers to measure and reward students for both the quantity and quality of their test responses. Nine-Patch Multiple-Choice offers two software packages that let teachers incorporate KJS into their multiple-choice tests:

Break Out Plus is the free version of Knowledge and Judgment Scoring. It's a Microsoft Excel add-in that you can download and use immediately. Break Out Plus combines the features of traditional right-mark scoring with Knowledge and Judgment Scoring (which rewards bothmarking right answers and not marking wrong answers). Break Out Plusprovides the most useful information that can be obtained from a multiple-choice test. A teacher can know the traditional score, as well as the things that students actually know and do not know.

Power Up Plus adds two powerful features to Break Out Plus: aTest Performance Profile, using discrimination and difficulty, and a student counseling matrix. These descriptive statistics tell a valid story about two key questions: How well did each student perform on the test? And how well did each multiple-choice question perform on the test? Power Up Plus is a $29.95(US) Microsoft Excel add-in.

Please visit www.nine-patch.com for a complete description of the Knowledge and Judgment Scoring methodology, and for your free copy of Break Out Plus.

Download your free copy from:http://www.nine-patch.com/download/BreakOut.zip. You'll also find information about the full-featured, affordable Power Up Plus add-in for Excel.

About Nine-Patch Multiple-Choice:

Knowledge and Judgment Scoring (KJS) was developed at Northwest Missouri State University (NWMSU) by Dr. Richard Hart, Professor Emeritus, when working with over 3000 students who were often under-prepared for college. They needed to change from performing as passive pupils to becoming self-correcting scholars to survive college classes. Students at NWMSU who made the shift from passive pupil to self-correcting scholar reported that they were doing better in all of their classes. High quality students learn more, easier, and do better on tests. KJS works!

• Break Out Plus
• System Requirements: Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP
• Get more info