Vocab Quizzes

My students get a lot of vocabulary quizzes. Often they are simple matching or multiple choice (something I can make quickly using http://www.wordsmyth.net an awesome site that let's you quickly make quizzes AND randomly organize the questions (so you can easily make different versions of the same test!). 

It is a great site that I often use, however it isn't my favorite ways of doing voabulary tests.

I actually prefer more subjective tests (and in my opinion slightly more fun).

For example: A recent unit in my college course had these vocabulary words: merit, handicap, reticent, phobia, extroverted, adverse, kindred, aloof, syndrome, chronic, misattribution, condescending.

One of my questions may be: Select the most positive vocabulary word and write it below. Include a brief explanation of why you think it is the most positive.

Possible answers could be:

• I think the most positive is aloof because if someone if aloof then they don't care what other people think and they can be self sufficient.
• Kindred is positive because if two people are kindred then they have a lot of things in common and they will probably become best friends, which is the most positive thing ever.

 Another fun one to give a quasi-random picture and have them match a word and explain:

Graffiti of a can of spray paint

• Misattribution, because people think graffiti isn't art, but it is.
• Handicap, because the spray bottle can't spray paint like other cans so it is handicapped.
• The picture shows the chronic problem of graffiti in Culiacan.

I like to give one or two questions like this (but they can't repeat a word) in addition to a few multiple choice/  matching/ true or false. 

Some students HATE these questions. They much prefer memorizing, other students really like them (as they get a chance to try and make something up if they don't know.

As for teachers? A lot of teachers appreciate the fact it makes students think (rather than just memorize and spit out). Some don't like the way there are multiple possible answers. Others think a student could just know two or three words really well and then make those work for any question, but I stand by my thinking that it makes students apply their knowledge in a new way.

How about you? How do you quiz vocabulary?