Short answer and completion items are both forms of "supply" items in which students have to provide the response, rather than selecting a response from among several provided in the test. Supply items are frequently used for recall of information and for problem solving in math and science (where the student is asked to supply the answer to a calculation or the result of a formula).

        Educational objectives frequently state that the student will "know" certain information, procedures, etc. When"knowing" is defined as "recall," "remember," "label," "list," "state," "define," "describe," or "name," those objectives can be measured with short answer or completion items.

        These types of questions have some advantages. Like true-false questions, short-answer and completion items can be written fairly easily. Students can complete a large number of items in a fairly short time (unless they involve working complex math problems), thus sampling a lot of content. Since the student has to generate the answers, the possibility of guessing the correct answers to these questions is greatly reduced when compared with true-false questions. While these items can be easy to score, poor student handwriting poses a potential problem.

        Completion items are those in which a statement is written with blanks substituted for one or more words which the student is to supply. Example 1 shows the format for a typical completion item. Students sometimes write their answers directly on the blanks embedded in the sentences, but scoring can be facilitated by providing answer blanks in a column along either the right or left side of the paper (Example 1b).