Writing Your Own Multiple Choice Test Questions

Even though so many texts now come with publisher-provided resources, such as test banks, sometimes it’s better for instructors to write their own tests.

Why?

Writing your own test questions “sound” more like you. You select what knowledge you want to include and the phrasing and language of your test questions also tend to sound more like you.

Multiple choice test questions are great for testing comprehension of the subject matter. Writing multiple choice test questions can be time consuming, but it helps if you have some basic understanding of how to do this.

Writing good test questions just takes a little care and know-how.
The test question consists of two parts: the stem and the answers.

Here are some of the best practices of writing good multiple choice questions:
- Offer at least 4-5 possible answers as choices; however, be consistent throughout the test. Offer either all 4 possible answers or all 5 possible answers.
- Use parallel construction when writing possible answers. That way each answer sounds plausible.
- Make sure that there is one concise and clear correct answer.
- Keep the language and phrasing simple; do not use big words so as to try to confuse students.
- Be careful not to create a correct answer pattern such as C for all questions, or A, B, C, D and so forth down the list; randomize the correct answer options.
- Write test questions across multiple levels of learning (Bloom’s Taxonomy) so that you measure knowledge of the subject matter and also ask students to analyze or evaluate the subject matter. That way you are testing across multiple levels of learning.

Here are things to AVOID when writing multiple choice questions:
- Using negatives in the stem of the question: the student spends a lot of time having to figure out what question really means instead of selecting the correct answer
- Varying the number of answer choices for each question. Be consistent throughout.
- Using “All of the above” as an answer option. If you do use this option then you must also include ‘None of the above”.

Good test questions should not be tricky and confusing! Remember why you are testing—and then write your test questions accordingly.