Multiple Choice Testing

In class most of the students were saying that they disliked multiple choice testing. I was surprised that most of the class felt like this. Some of the reasons they said that they did not like multiple choice testing were that they left students who guessed with good chances of doing good, after awhile you could figure out the pattern of answers if had the same teacher multiple years in a row, and if was stuck between two choices the reasoning for picking the answer you did could not be explained. I agree with some of these reasons but not all of them. I agree that it isn’t fair that those who did not study can pull out good grades. I think it is very hard to figure out the pattern the teachers use because in my experience the pattern usually changes from test to test.
In my opinion multiple choice testing is good under many circumstances and did contribute to my learning. I think that multiple choice questions are good for classes where multiple chapters are covered at once. This usually means that there are many details to remember, which can be a bit overwhelming. I feel that to do well on multiple choice questions the basics must still be known to help narrow down the options. I also think multiple choice tests are good for comprehensive finals for the same reasons. Another reason I like multiple choice is that if when you look at the test and you stress out and your mind goes blank you can at least make an educated guess rather than trying to pull something out of thin air for a short answer, essay, or fill in the blank question.
There are times that I feel that all multiple choice questions on a test are not good. I think that some questions require explaining of why we but certain answers ifs a good thing. I personally think that a mixture of different types of questions on test would be the best. I say this because it tests students understanding on true or false, multiple choice, short answer, fill-in-blank, and essay questions.