In the interest of developing a combination of teaching techniques designed to maximize efficiency and quality of instruction, we have experimentally tested three separate and relatively common teaching techniques in three large introductory political science classes at a large urban public university. Our results indicate that the (short-answer) skeleton essay approach in large classes does not provide any significant benefit over full writing assignments or even a lack of writing assignments. Essay and multiple-choice testing techniques produce similar results, though both types of testing have their strengths and weaknesses. We conclude that using a blend of the two testing techniques may be the best approach.