Make all choices equal in length and parallel in structure.ĭo not give away the best choice by making it longer, more detailed, or filled with more qualifiers than the alternatives.On rare occasion an implausible distracter can relieve tension among students. The best distracters are statements that are too general or too specific for the requirements of the problem, statements that are accurate but do not fully meet the requirements of the problem, and incorrect statements that seem right to the poorly prepared student. Make the distracters appealing and plausible.ĭistracters should represent errors commonly made by students.Never give students more than five alternatives. A four-response answer format is the most popular. Research shows that three-choice items are about as effective as four-choice items. Limit the number of response alternatives.Leaving aside fiscal policies for the moment, which of the following monetary policies would be most effective in combating inflation? Better: Which of the following monetary policies would be most effective in combating inflation? Poor: Monetary and fiscal policies are commonly sued in the U.S. Unnecessary information confuses students and wastes their time. Usually, direct questions are clearer than sentence completions.ĭo not repeat phrases in the options if the phrase can be stated in the stem. Make sure that students can understand the problem before reading the alternative answers. Rather, encourage students to use a partial knowledge to figure out a response and make an informed guess. In the directions, let students know whether they can guess.ĭon't design exams that punish students for guessing.In the directions, instruct students to select the "best answer" rather than the "correct answer."Īsking for the "correct answer" is more likely to invite debate from contentious students.Change your answers if you wish research shows that most students gain more than they lose on changed answers.Save time at the end to double-check your answers and make sure you haven't made any clerical errors.Go through the test again spend a reasonable amount of time on each problem, but move on if you get stuck.Go through the test once and answer all the questions you can.Instructors should give the following recommendations to students preparing to take a multiple-choice exam:
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Give students advice on how to take a multiple-choice or matching test.Target writing three to five items a week. Good test items are difficult to write, and you will find the task easier if you spread out the work. This may help insure an adequate number of understanding, application, and synthesis items. One way of maintaining a balance is to set up a grid, using categories from Bloom's taxonomy as headings for columns, and course objective titles for rows. Research suggests that faculty tend to construct questions that require memorized knowledge. Make sure that at least some test items require higher-level learning.Strategies, Ideas, and Recommendations from the faculty Development Literature
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