Definition
Test or quiz questions that have a single correct answer which can be scored without instructor judgment, such as multiple-choice, true/false, matching, and fill-in-the-blank items.
Plain English
Questions where the answer is either right or wrong, and the person grading does not have to make a judgment call.
Context Anchor
Used by flight instructors during ground lessons, briefings, cockpit instruction, and reviews to check whether a student knows a specific fact, step, limit, or procedure.
Derivation
From Latin objectivus, meaning 'related to an object' rather than to personal opinion. In testing, it means the answer stands on its own facts, independent of the grader's view.
Why Pilots Care
Most FAA written knowledge tests use objective (multiple-choice) questions, so students encounter this format throughout their training and checkride preparation.
Intuition Check
Objective does not mean “the goal of the lesson” here. It means the question has an answer that can be checked as correct or incorrect.
Example Sentence 1
The instructor wrote a set of objective questions covering airspace classes, with each question having one clearly correct answer.
Example Sentence 2
An instructor used objective questions after the lesson to check whether the student had retained the key VFR cloud clearance rules.