Writing Good Multiple Choice Test Questions Center for Teaching Vanderbilt University

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings. This is done in the Item Propertiesto the right of the canvas. This will take you back to the point where further changes to the interaction may be made , or where the Interaction can be dismissed until the test is assembled. The Library on the left-hand side will show existing items. The last item to be edited will be highlighted in the library.

Medicare coverage for many tests, items and services depends on where you live. This list only includes tests, items and services that are covered no matter where you live. If your test, item or service isn’t listed, talk to your doctor or other health care provider. They can help you understand why you need certain tests, items or services, and if Medicare will cover them. Students often have difficulty understanding items with negative phrasing . If a significant learning outcome requires negative phrasing, such as identification of dangerous laboratory or clinical practices, the negative element should be emphasized with italics or capitalization.

Educated Guessing

Can measure an extensive amount of content or objectives. Occasionally shuffle papers during the reading of answers to help avoid any systematic order effects (i.e., Sally’s “B” work always followed Jim’s “A” work thus it looked more like “C” work). Are more difficult to score since more than one answer may have to be considered correct if the item was not properly prepared. Can efficiently measure lower levels of cognitive ability.

If repeated use of items is possible, statistics should be recorded for each administration of each item. Following is a description of the various statistics provided on a ScorePak® item analysis report. The first part test item assesses the items which made up the exam. The second part shows statistics summarizing the performance of the test as a whole. Are more time consuming to score when compared to multiple-choice or true-false items.

Multiple Choice Test Items

Type Transformation Description Text Regular expression Match the value to the regular expression and replace value with . The regular expression supports extraction of maximum 10 captured groups with the \N sequence. Failure to match the input value will make the item unsupported.

When alternatives are numbers, they should generally be listed in ascending or descending order of magnitude or length. Generally avoid using “a” or “an” at the end of the stem. Every alternative should grammatically fit with the stem of the item. Put everything that pertains to all alternatives in the stem of the item. This helps to avoid repetitious alternatives and saves time. When developing the stem of a multiple choice item, the following general principles should be utilized.

Item-Elicitation Format

For best results, run an analysis on a test after students have submitted all attempts, and you’ve graded all manually graded questions. Be aware that the statistics are influenced by the number of test attempts, the type of students who took the test, and chance errors. Item analysis provides statistics on overall performance, test quality, and individual questions. This data helps you recognize questions that might be poor discriminators of student performance. Such data are influenced by the type and number of students being tested, instructional procedures employed, and chance errors.

Alternatives with overlapping content may be considered “trick” items by test-takers, excessive use of which can erode trust and respect for the testing process. Which can decrease the reliability and the validity of the test scores . A question is recommended for review because it falls into the hard difficulty https://globalcloudteam.com/ category. You determine the question is hard, but you keep it to adequately test your course objectives. None of Student A’s previous attempts are included in the current analysis data. As soon as Student A submits the third attempt, subsequent analyses will include Student A’s third attempt.

Item Analysis

That is, it indicates how “spread out” the responses were. The item standard deviation is most meaningful when comparing items which have more than one correct alternative and when scale scoring is used. For this reason it is not typically used to evaluate classroom tests. When used, such alternatives were occasionally the correct response. Another form of a subjective test item is the problem solving or computational exam question.

• Distribute correct answers fairly evenly among the “letters.”
• It would be possible to avoid introducing this reading element by having the multiple-choice alternatives presented orally as well.
• Are easier and less time consuming to construct than are most other item types.
• Similarly, I will not address fill-in-the-blank items because they are less common, and because they are extremely difficult to construct so that only one possible answer could complete the blank.
• The chief disadvantage is that true-false questions create the greatest probability of guessing.
• Test itemhas the meaning provided in Section 2.7 of the GTCs.

Because they are not actual tests, they are not predictors of student performance and are not valid for level placement, assessment, or for reporting standardized scores. Whereas the reliability of a test always varies between 0.00 and 1.00, the standard error of measurement is expressed in the same scale as the test scores. For example, multiplying all test scores by a constant will multiply the standard error of measurement by that same constant, but will leave the reliability coefficient unchanged. Can most appropriately measure learning objectives which focus on the ability of the students to apply skills or knowledge in real life situations. After you have decided to use either an objective, essay or both objective and essay exam, the next step is to select the kind of objective or essay item that you wish to include on the exam.

Writing tests

As an alternative and increase the likelihood of guessing correctly. Cognitive load theory recommends avoiding elements of instruction or assessment that will overload students’ capacity to consciously process the immediate task on which they are working. A test is a task that requires considerable conscious attention. So, it is important to remove any elements of a test item that might distract or unnecessarily increase the cognitive load a student encounters. Cognitive load theory (e.g., Sweller, 1988; 1994) emphasizes the importance of the processes and limitations of working memory, the level of memory that is consciously processing information involved in immediate tasks.

You can use the information gathered from either method to identify strengths and weaknesses in your item writing. Generally do not provide an objective measure of student achievement or ability (subject to bias on the part of the observer/grader). Can most appropriately measure learning objectives which focus on the ability to apply skills or knowledge in the solution of problems.

Suggestions for Scoring Essay Items

Learners are not supposed to guess the correct option; they should select an alternative only if they know it is correct. An effective means of diverting the learner from the correct response is to use common learner errors as distractors. For example, if writing a question on the conversion of degrees Celsius to degrees Fahrenheit, providing alternatives derived by using incorrect formulas would be logical, since using the wrong formula is a common learner error. Validity is the degree to which a test measures the learning outcomes it purports to measure. Also, selection type items make it possible to directly compare learner accomplishment.