In general, matching items consist of a column of stimuli presented on the left side of the exam page and a column of responses placed on the right side of the page. Students are required to match the response associated with a given stimulus.

Sample matching test item

Directions: On the line to the left of each painting style, write the letter of the statement that best explains the style. There is one more definition than painting styles.

Painting Styles	Explanation
___ 1. Abstract expressionism	a. style which combines naturally unrelated events, images, objects, or situations in a dreamlike scene
___ 2. Surrealism	b. style which makes geometric shapes of color that interact subtly with the backgrounds of similar intensities
___ 3. Pop art	c. style in which the artists use a spontaneous method for creating art
	d. style that depicts objects or scenes from everyday life and employs techniques of commercial art

Advantages in using matching items

Matching items:

• require short periods of reading and response time, allowing you to cover more content
  
• provide objective measurement of student knowledge
  
• provide highly reliable test scores
  
• provide scoring efficiency and accuracy

Limitations in using matching items

Matching items:

• have difficulty measuring learning objectives requiring more than simple recall of information
  
• are difficult to construct due to the problem of selecting a common set of stimuli and responses

Suggestions for writing matching test items

1. Include directions which clearly state the basis for matching the stimuli with the responses. Explain whether or not a response can be used more than once and indicate where to write the answer.

Undesirable Directions: Match the following.

Desirable Directions: On the line to the left of each identifying location and characteristics in Column I, write the letter of the country in Column II that is best defined. Each country in Column II may be used more than once

2. Use only homogeneous material in matching items.

Undesirable Directions: Match the following

Desirable Directions: On the line to the left of each art style in Column I, write the letter of a representative artist from Column II. Use each name only once.

3. Arrange the list of responses in some systematic order if possible (e.g. chronological, alphabetical)

4. Avoid grammatical or other clues to the correct response, e.g. avoid sentence completion due to grammatical clues.

5. Keep matching items brief, limiting the list of stimuli to under 10.

6. Include more responses than stimuli to help prevent answering through the process of elimination.

7. When possible, reduce the amount of reading time by including only short phrases or single words in the response list.