Fill in the Blank Exam Questions

Fill in the blank questions demand recall skills and are often the tool of choice for testing knowledge acquisition and retention. CrunchTime! TalentLink’s exam tool includes a fill in the blank question type with 1-4 correct answers and an exact match required option.

The inherent problem with all fill in the blank questions is that there are so many ways to say the same thing. Even when you’re using exact match required, which we recommend, there can be many possibilities. Following are some best practices that will steer you around some of the common pitfalls of fill in the blank and help you achieve optimal results with CrunchTime! TalentLink’s exam tool.

Best Practice

Use Exact Match Required

We recommend using the exact match required option.

Give learners a blank to fill in.

Revising your question construction to include an actual blank to fill in may reduce the number of potential answers.

Instead of: What temperature is used for baking Buster’s Brownies?

Try this: For Buster’s Brownies, the oven should be set to ___ degrees Fahrenheit.

This change in construction can greatly reduce the number of options for the correct answer. If you bake the brownies at 325 degrees Fahrenheit, the only possible correct answers are:

1. 325

2. three hundred and twenty-five

3. three hundred twenty-five

4. three twenty five

Other examples:

Instead of...	Try this...
How many liters of water go into each steam table tray?	When filling the steam table trays, each one gets ___ liters of water.
How many minutes do you set on the timer after taking the pot roast out of the oven?	After taking the pot roast out of the oven, you set the timer for ___ minutes.

Give explicit directions on the “style” or unit of measurement to use for the answer.

By providing the “style” or the unit of measurement to be used for the answer, you can further reduce the number of possibilities.

Instead of: For Buster’s Brownies, the oven should be set to ____ degrees Fahrenheit.

Try This: For Buster’s Brownies, the oven should be set to ____ degrees Fahrenheit. Please answer in numerical characters.

This further-revised question has only one possible correct answer: 325

Examples of phrases that provide the style or unit of measurement (without giving away the answer):

• Please answer using Tbsp. for tablespoon or Tsp. for teaspoon.

• Answer using in. for inches or ft. for feet.

• Please answer in numbers/numerical characters.

• Please give the job title of the co-worker.

• The first blank is the kind of meat, the second is the cut of the meat.

Avoid using fill in the blank questions for long or conversational answers.

Because recipes and techniques are so important and every detail matters, our fill-in-the-blank tool (even with exact match required turned off) is very particular about what it will accept.

Quotation marks are an example of something that can cause problems for both learners and those who create the exams.

If the question is: What do you say when a customer walks in the door?

And the answer is: Welcome to Buster’s Brownies!

And your learner writes: “Welcome to Buster’s Brownies!”

The response will be marked incorrect. The system, in fact, does not read anything past that initial quotation mark.

Since welcoming your guests in this manner is an important part of your brand experience, we recommend using the exact match required option and indicating at the end of your question that users should not include quotations or punctuation in their answers.

When Not Using Exact Match Required Option

When an answer to a question is easily misspelled, it may be best to not require an exact match, and allow the tool to anticipate any incorrect spellings.

For example:

If the question is:  The Chicken Lazone is served over _______ pasta.

And the answer is:  Fettuccine

And your learner writes:  Fetuchine

The answer will be correct, because the first few consonant sounds of your learner’s response match those of Fettuccine.

Note:  If your answer contains a numerical response, you must use the exact match required option.

Not Case Sensitive & Closing Punctuation Is Ignored

CrunchTime! TalentLink’s exam functionality is fully case neutral even when exact match is required on fill in the blank questions.

Closing punctuation is also ignored when an exact match is not required, including its use or absence from abbreviations.