 Pilot was run at Brighton and results fed back at ALT Leeds conference  This year Surrey students have also been involved  Students are asked to write multiple choice questions on a regular basis to assess their understanding of topics covered

Basic assumption: Formative assessment and exercises should ideally develop the skills and understanding necessary to approach summative or formal assessment. Legal knowledge and legal reasoning: These are the basic building blocks of legal assessment. Can we distill something of their essence and base class exercises around this?

 Interpretation is a necessary part of legal knowledge and legal reasoning. Legal sources are inherently and inevitably subject to interpretation. Beyond bare legal 'facts', this will largely determine the ability of a student (or lawyer) to understand the law or its application in any given context.  The nature of legal interpretation is a complex and contentious matter, but introducing the notion in a simple, stripped down manner might both introduce this skill and allow students to better interpret the legal sources they are working with.

 Legal sources are subject to potentially infinite different interpretations. What makes a 'better' or 'worse' interpretation will depend on the context.  The key to a 'good' interpretation would seem to be the ability to select among competing plausible interpretations of legal sources that which is most plausible.

 The goal of reverse MCQs is allow students to articulate several (ostensibly) plausible interpretations of legal sources, among which one appears to them to most plausible.  This 'forces' students to articulate an applied understanding, arrived at through interpretation, rather than simply treating legal sources as inert facts.

 Medical students have been tested rigorously for years using MCQs and a few have recently also started drafting exam questions including MCQs as a form of formative assessment (Kolluru 2012)  The skills used for symptom identification, diagnosis and prognosis are comparable to those used for fact identification, legal principles and application

 Students are given basic instructions at the beginning of the course on how to write a good MCQ  At the start even ‘poor’ questions are shared – all anonymous – so students learn by example and by creating new questions regularly

For which of the following rights does an employee normally need NO continuity of employment in order to be eligible: a) Unfair dismissal b) Flexible working c) Parental leave d) Time off for dependants

Sue has been employed for nine months when her elderly mother falls down some steps and breaks her leg. Which of the following is the most appropriate for Sue to apply for and also most likely to be granted? a) time off for dependants b) parental leave c) flexible working d) carer’s leave

Donoghue v Stevenson establishes the principle that: (a) People who find snails in soft drinks are entitled to compensation. (b) A duty of care might be owed by a manufacturer to a party harmed by their product even though they have no direct contractual relationship. (c) Tortious liability should be imposed wherever someone should be considered one’s ‘neighbour’ in law. (d) It is illegal to keep snails in ginger beer in Scotland.

Brighton: A moderate response rate – 18 completed the questionnaire out of 28 students (64%) Surrey: High response rate: 20 out of 22 students (91%)

 It’s useful but I do find it difficult to prioritise time  MCQs should be made a compulsory seminar task  I understand how it helps you think about the topic and that it’s almost like teaching someone, which I find a great way of revising  I wish I had done them!  A great opportunity to recap and refresh – we should use them even more in seminars

 Put them online – so we can revise from them  We need more exam practice questions  We could discuss the MCQ answers more – but I know this would take time  I’d like more tests and practice questions

 I found the task difficult at first but it made me reflect more on the certain cases  Getting people to answer your own questions was fun.  It made me think about the case in a different way. Very tough though – harder than problem questions  The tutors saying they were stumped by my question was really fun

 Balancing learning the material and these exercises is always difficult. I am open to any similar ideas but it is always difficult to balance the time  Longer tutorials  It would be good to try it with other topics  We should have more attempts at it because it is difficult  Time to answer others’ questions would be helpful  Interacting with tutors in this way was great because it reversed the roles a little. More exercises like this would be helpful  Everyone loves a pop quiz!

 Scouller, K. (1998) The influence of assessment methods on students’ learning approaches: Multiple choice question examination versus assignment essay, Higher Education, 35,  Nwosu A.,Mason S.,Roberts A., Hugel H.(2013) The Evaluation of a peer-led question writing task, Clinical Education 10(3), available online at Nwosu AMason SRoberts AHugel H  Kolluru S., (2012) An active learning assignment requiring pharmacy students to write medical chemistry examination questions Am J Pharm Educ 10, 76(6) available online at