Writing Proper Multiple-Choice Questions

20 Tips for Creating Multiple-Choice Questions

This page lists the essen­tial tips for writ­ing effec­tive mul­ti­ple-choice ques­tions.

Each ques­tion should only be designed to assess one sin­gle objective/purpose. Do not aim to assess more than one con­cept or con­tent item per ques­tion. Each ques­tion should include one and only one cor­rect or clear­ly best answer. One alter­na­tive is the cor­rect answer. Put each choice on a dif­fer­ent line with a let­ter choice. Don’t put all on one line. Place the stu­dent tasks in the item stem (stem is the question/problem). The item stem should clear­ly state the ques­tion to be answered e.g., select the best response, select the most accu­rate response, select the most appro­pri­ate answer etc. Stu­dents need to know their actions with­out hav­ing to read the response options.
Put repeat­ed terms in the item stem. (e.g., arti­cles, words that start each answer) The stem may be in the form of either a ques­tion (best) or an incom­plete state­ment (okay) – but should be word­ed pos­i­tive­ly if pos­si­ble. For exam­ple: The cap­i­tal of British Colum­bia is and then a list­ing of 4 choices…should be bet­ter words at “Which of the fol­low­ing cities is the cap­i­tal of British Colum­bia?” and then the list­ing of choic­es. Con­struct four sug­gest­ed solu­tions (alter­na­tives). Research indi­cates 4 is a good num­ber. Ensure each alter­na­tive is word­ed clear­ly and con­cise­ly. Irrel­e­vant mate­r­i­al should be avoid­ed. Three alter­na­tives are incor­rect or infe­ri­or alter­na­tives (dis­trac­tors). The pur­pose of the dis­trac­tors is to appear as plau­si­ble solu­tions for those stu­dents who have not achieved the objec­tive being mea­sured by the test item. Do not use absurd or unbe­liev­able dis­trac­tors because that just gives away the answer or makes it far eas­i­er to guess from few­er plau­si­ble choic­es. Try to make all the dis­trac­tors as homoge­nous as pos­si­ble so only the stu­dent who has ful­ly under­stood the ques­tion can eas­i­ly select the cor­rect answer.
Make sure all respons­es are rel­a­tive­ly equal in length. Avoid mak­ing the cor­rect response either the longest or the short­est in length. Often the cor­rect respons­es are the longest. Put options in a log­i­cal order, if pos­si­ble. (e.g., alpha­bet­i­cal, chrono­log­i­cal so no bias and so stu­dents don’t try to guess because or the order they are list­ed) Make sure all the gram­mar, punc­tu­a­tion and spelling are cor­rect. Use sim­ple, pre­cise, and unam­bigu­ous word­ing. Stu­dents will be more like­ly to select the cor­rect answer by find­ing the gram­mat­i­cal­ly cor­rect option. Avoid gram­mat­i­cal clues to the answer. (e.g., an, a – which indi­cate a vow­el/non-vow­el word).Ensure items are not inter­de­pen­dent mean­ing the infor­ma­tion in one ques­tion should not sup­ply the answer to anoth­er or the next ques­tion.
Do not include unneed­ed words. Keep sim­ple. If “no” or “not” is used, bold the word. Try to avoid using neg­a­tive con­struc­tions in the stem. Stu­dents may not be able to find an incor­rect answer with­out know­ing the cor­rect answer. Try to avoid use of “all of the above” – use reduces effec­tive­ness of ques­tion and test score reli­a­bil­i­ty. Stu­dents mere­ly need to rec­og­nize two cor­rect options to get the answer cor­rect. Try to avoid the use of “none of the above” as you’ll nev­er know if stu­dents know the cor­rect answer.
Avoid using (a) no-excep­tion words such as nev­er, all, none and always (they sig­nal an incor­rect response) and (b) qual­i­fy­ing words such as often, sel­dom, some­times (sig­nal cor­rect respons­es). Place the cor­rect answer in each pos­si­ble posi­tion equal­ly often or align with an answer key. Use cap­i­tal let­ters (A. B. C. D.) rather than low­er case let­ters (e.g., “a” gets con­fused with “d” and “c” with “a” if the pho­to­copy­ing isn’t clear) Empha­size high­er lev­el think­ing where you can by ask­ing stu­dents to ana­lyze, com­pare, con­trast etc. High­er lev­el ques­tions do not nec­es­sar­i­ly take more time to devel­op. Stu­dents will appre­ci­ate ques­tions that make them think than just sim­ply recall on mem­o­ry.

 

More Help? Writ­ing Good Mul­ti­ple Choice Ques­tions by Cyn­thia J. Brame — https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/writing-good-multiple-choice-test-questions/