Wrong is a relative concept: part marks for multiple-choice questions

Most of the literature concerning multiple-choice exam questions assumes that they are marked on a simple scale of 1 for a right answer and 0 for a wrong one. In this paper I present a case for multiple-choice questions that are worth more than one mark, for parity with other questions on the exam. I propose that with such questions, it is appropriate to award part marks for some of the wrong answers. I present some multiple-choice questions of this sort that have been used in the final exam for an introductory programming course, and analyse the students’ answers to confirm that the questions are valid assessment items.