It is recommended to include different types of questions in a test by many authors. This makes it more dynamic, diverse, and also enables measurements of different types of knowledge. The most common types of questions in physics are multiple-choice questions and short answer open-ended questions. The question arises whether the type of question affects the performance of solving physics problems. We search for the answer by testing the pupils of a few selected Slovenian primary schools. It turns out that pupils are more successful in solving multiple-choice questions than open-ended questions. We also compare the performance in solving a bit more complex physical problems with multiple intermediate steps, being either guided by sub-questions or not guided. The results indicate that students are more successful in solving the tasks when guided than when not guided through a complex problem. Additionally, we investigated how the performance of the undergraduate students depends on the types of questions, in particular in view of their higher expected knowledge and understanding of physics when compared to pupils. It turns out that the students are also more successful in solving multiple-choice questions than open-ended questions and are more successful when being guided through a complex problem then when not being guided.
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