Issue 7, Spring 1994

William A. McEachern, Editor

Multiple-Choice Questions

Inevitably, those who teach large classes often rely on multiple-choice questions for at least part of their exams. Here are ten suggested guidelines for writing your own questions or for selecting questions from a test bank. Much of this will be familiar, but as Will Rogers said, "None of us is smart enough to remember all we know."

1. Focus on matters of substance; do not test for trivia. If test questions hinge on the specific wording of a definition, then students will prepare for tests by memorizing definitions.
2. The questions stem should present a clear, concise reflection of the problem and should contain a verb. Avoid distracting clutter in the stem.
3. The question stem should contain as much of the question as possible; include in the stem any words that would otherwise have to be included in each of the alternatives.
4. Make sure the question has one "correct," or "best," answer and let students know whether it is the "correct" answer you seek or the "best" answer. Avoid using throw-away distracters or obviously wrong distracters.
5. Avoid providing clues to the right answer through giveaways such as the length of an option (the longest is often correct), verbal cues, grammatical phrasing (such as parallel constructions), or use of words such as "always" or "never."
6. Avoid negative statements in the stem; if you must pose the question in a negative way, bold-face or underline the negative word. Avoid the use of double negative when combining the stem and option.
7. Use only sparingly the options "All of the above," "None of the above," and subset alternatives (such as "A and B"). With "All of the above," students sometimes select option A, the first correct answer, then go to the next question.
8. Mix up the location of the correct answer from question to question. Avoid patterns even if they are just the result of your random selection process.
9. Rather than providing graphs on the exam, ask questions that require students to know the necessary graphs. I tell my students beforehand that the exam will supply no graphs even though there will be questions that require an understanding of graphs.
10. Mix up the type of questions asked and the level of difficulty. Some questions should challenge your best students.

Above all, remember that you are testing students' knowledge of economics, not their verbal skills. Foreign students have particular problems untangling the wording of needlessly complicated multiple-choice exams. During the exam, you want students to think about economics, not try to divine sentence construction.

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