Question- and Test-Writing Tips

Parts of a multiple choice question

Writing Good Multiple Choice Questions: A Checklist

❏ Is the stem longer than the answer choices? (Can you cover up the choices and still be able to answer
the question?)
❏ Have you avoided giving unintentional hints about the right answer?
❏ Do your answer choices have parallel structure?
❏ Does every answer choice follow grammatically from the stem? (agreeing in number, using “a(n)
_____” in the question instead of just “a” or “an”, etc)
❏ Are all answer choices about the same length? (there is a tendency to make the key longer than
the distractors)
❏ Do all distractors use relevant vocabulary? Are at least two of them truly plausible answers?
❏ Are critical words or instructions (e.g. NOT, EXCEPT) in the stem CAPITALIZED or ​underlined​?
❏ Are all phrases that could be abbreviated spelled out? (e.g. “multiple choice question” instead of “MCQ”
and “independent variable” instead of “IV”)
❏ Have you avoided absolutes like “always” and “never” and choices such as “all of the above” or “none of
the above?”
❏ When writing scenarios, are you using diverse and non-stereotypical names?
❏ Is your writing as clear and unambiguous as possible? (Would everyone understand what you are
asking?)
❏ Are you asking questions the typical student would not have been able to answer before taking this
class?

Consider...
● Writing a few questions immediately after reading each module!
● Including a figure (e.g. a diagram of a neuron or the brain, a graph of “data” from a study) to go along
with a question
● Asking multiple (2-3) questions about the same scenario/diagram/graph/data set
● Mixing up whether you are using sentence completion format or question format
○ Sentence completion: “The part of the brain that receives visual information is the. . .”
○ Question format: “Which lobe of the brain is responsible for processing visual information?”
The Test as a Whole
● Collectively, your questions should address each of the learning objectives identified for that unit
● Devote more questions to bigger picture concepts and fewer questions to fine-grained details. The
makeup of your test should roughly reflect how much time we spent discussing the concepts in class.
● Don’t avoid writing question on topics you didn’t understand that well. Once you have identified which
concepts you are shaky on, make an effort to learn that topic well enough that you ​can​ write a decent
question about it.
● Overall, your test will be required to have a range of ​difficulties​ and a range of ​levels of analysis​. Often,
but not always, these two categories will be correlated (i.e., the “thirds” questions are the
definition/identification questions).
○ Difficulties
■ Thirds​: straightforward questions that the vast majority of your classmates would be
able to answer
● Ex: Who is known as the Father of Psychology for establishing the first
psychology lab?
■ JV​: these are the “goldilocks” level of difficulty. A student should had to have studied
reasonably well to get these types of questions right.
● Introspection is a technique that would have been used by which psychologist?
(the student has to make the link that introspection was part of structuralism,
and then recall that the founder of structuralism was Titchener).
■ Varsity​: these questions should differentiate those students who really have a deep,
thorough understanding of a concept from those whose understanding is more surface
level. You might really test misconceptions here. Asking about a very obscure term that
was only mentioned briefly may be quite challenging, but does not demonstrate the
most understanding on your part.
● Someone who believes that the purpose of psychology should be to discern the
structure of consciousness would most likely have DISAGREED with which
psychologist?
○ Levels of Analysis
■ 1:​ Definition/identification
■ 2:​ Application: describing an example scenario and asking which relevant psych concept
applies
■ 3:​ Analysis/Synthesis: Involves comparison/contrasting, analogies, fitting things into a
hierarchical structure, making connections between concepts, etc.

Creating the Answer Key

● Make sure that when you bring in your test for peer review, you have also filled out the answer key. It’s
important that the correct answers are identified on this sheet and not on the actual test so that your
peer reviewer can answer the questions without already seeing the answer.
● Rate each question’s difficulty and identify the level of analysis. Don’t stress too much over this part, as
it is clearly somewhat subjective and not always clear-cut. If your reviewer thinks you are way off the
mark, they will have the chance to let you know.