Developing Exam Skills - Better use of multi choice questions

Multi choice questions are frequently used in lessons but often only really test students knowledge. For example:What do you call a business owned and controlled by one person?A Sole TraderB PartnershipC Private Limited CompanyD Public Limited Company The above example only tests students knowledge and does not really allow for further questioning. A far better way to use multi choice questions in lessons is to use them to develop students skills of evaluation by giving them a question that has a range of solutions that can be debated and encourage students to justify. For example: What is the biggest disadvantage of being a sole trader?A Unlimited liabilityB Difficult to raise capitalC Taking holidays can prove to be problematic D Limited opportunities for expansion Here, we can see that this requires students to make judgements and allows the teacher to use further questioning by asking students WHY they have come to that conclusion. There are multi solutions to this question which is far more stretching when compared to the first example