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| Critical Thinking Skills Testing | Social studies students can also be asked to master noncontent abilities, for instance critical thinking skills. Though this is most excellent accomplished by essay questions, objective-style questions may be used too. The use of most important sources is a good foundation for both objective and essay questions.
Objective questions:
Which of the following is the OPPOSITE of deficit spending?
a) when revenues exceed expenditures
b) when expenditures exceed revenues
c) when revenues and expenditures are equal
d) when there is neither expenditure nor revenue
Students have to know what shortage spending is, but they also have to be able to recognize an opposite, a, in order to answer the question.
One more example:
All of the following about FDR belong together EXCEPT
a) was governor of New York
b) as president, instituted New Deal programs
c) was elected to four presidential terms
d) was president during World War II
 The right, the only nonpresidential fact, is answer a. The aptitude to group appropriately is a thinking skill.
One more way to do it is:
Which of the following is NOT associated with the ancient Greeks?
a) Olympics
b) Parthenon
c) Socrates
d) Hieroglyphics
The answer, d, allows students to use the thought process of elimination, which is also a critical thinking skill.
While planning multiple-choice questions, try to randomly differ which choice is the right answer. Do not put in any obvious patterns. You should make an attempt to obtain an even spread. Also, you do not always have to have four options. A lot of tests, such as the AP history exams, use five choices, and a number of people feel that this makes them harder. You can rarely use three choices, though you should try to reduce that.
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