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Chapter 3

TEST CONSTRUCTION

1. Know the different Types of Test Questions.

2. Create an Examination from the different Types of Test Questions.

Lesson 1. EXAM QUESTIONS

a. Types
b.Characteristics
c. Suggestions

LESSON 1: EXAM QUESTIONS: TYPES, CHARACTERISTICS, AND SUGGESTIONS

Examinations are a very common assessment and evaluation tool in universities

and there are many types of examination questions. This tips sheet contains a brief
description of seven types of examination questions, as well as tips for using each of them:
1) multiple choice
2) true/false
3) matching,
4) short answer
5) essay
6) oral
7) computational

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 Remember that some exams can be conducted effectively in a secure online
environment in a proctored computer lab or assigned as paper based or online “take
home” exams.

Multiple choice

Multiple choice questions are composed of one question (stem) with multiple
possible answers (choices), including the correct answer and several incorrect answers
(distractors). Typically, students select the correct answer by circling the associated
number or letter, or filling in the associated circle on the machine-readable response
sheet.

Example: Distractors are:

A) Elements of the exam layout that distract attention from the questions
B) Incorrect but plausible choices used in multiple choice questions
C) Unnecessary clauses included in the stem of multiple choice questions

Answer: B

Students can generally respond to these types of questions quite quickly. As a result,
they are often used to test student’s knowledge of a broad range of content. Creating these
questions can be time consuming because it is often difficult to generate several plausible
distractors. However, they can be marked very quickly.

Tips for writing good multiple-choice items:

Avoid Do use
In the stem: In the stem:

• Long / complex sentences • Your own words – not statements

• Trivial statements straight out of the textbook
• Negatives and double-negatives • Single, clearly formulated problems
• Ambiguity or indefinite terms, absolute
statements, and broad generalization In the choices:
• Extraneous material
• Item characteristics that provide a clue to • Plausible and homogeneous distractors
the answer misconceptions • Statements based on common student
misconceptions
In the choices: • True statements that do not answer the
questions
• Statements too close to the correct answer • Short options – and all same length
• Completely implausible responses • Correct options evenly distributed over
• ‘All of the above,’ ‘none of the above’ A, B, C, etc.
• Overlapping responses (e.g., if ‘A’ is true) • Alternatives that are in logical or
numerical then ‘C’ is also true) order
• At least 3 alternatives

Suggestion: After each lecture during the term, jot down two or three multiple choice
questions based on the material for that lecture. Regularly taking a few minutes to
compose questions, while the material is fresh in your mind, will allow you to develop a
question bank that you can use to construct tests and exams quickly and easily.

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True/false

True/false questions are only composed of a statement. Students respond to the

questions by indicating whether the statement is true or false. For example: True/false
questions have only two possible answers (Answer: True).

Like multiple choice questions, true/false questions:

• Are most often used to assess familiarity with course content and to check for
popular misconceptions
• Allow students to respond quickly so exams can use a large number of them to
test knowledge of a broad range of content
• Are easy and quick to grade but time consuming to create

True/false questions provide students with a 50% chance of guessing the right answer.
For this reason, multiple choice questions are often used instead of true/false questions.

Tips for writing good true/false items:

Avoid Do use
• Negatives and double-negatives • Your own words
• Long / complex sentences • The same number of true and false statements (50
• Trivial material / 50) or slightly more false statements than true
• Broad generalizations (60/40) – students are more likely to answer true
• Ambiguous or indefinite terms • One central idea in each item

Suggestion: You can increase the usefulness of true/false questions by asking students
to correct false statements.

Matching

Students respond to matching questions by pairing each of a set of stems (e.g.,

definitions) with one of the choices provided on the exam. These questions are often used
to assess recognition and recall and so are most often used in courses where acquisition
of detailed knowledge is an important goal. They are generally quick and easy to create
and mark, but students require more time to respond to these questions than a similar
number of multiple choice or true/false items.

Example: Match each question type with one attribute:

1. Multiple Choice a) Only two possible answers

2. True/False b) Equal number of stems and choices
3. Matching c) Only one correct answer but at least three choices

Tips for writing good matching items:

Avoid Do use
• Long stems and options • Short responses 10-15 items on only one page
• Heterogeneous content (e.g., dates mixed • Clear directions
with people) • Logically ordered choices (chronological,
• Implausible responses alphabetical, etc.)

Suggestion: You can use some choices more than once in the same matching exercise.
It reduces the effects of guessing.

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 Short answer

Short answer questions are typically composed of a brief prompt that demands a
written answer that varies in length from one or two words to a few sentences. They are
most often used to test basic knowledge of key facts and terms. An example this kind of
short answer question follows:

“What do you call an exam format in which students must uniquely associate a set
of prompts with a set of options?” Answer: Matching questions

Alternatively, this could be written as a fill-in-the-blank short answer question:

“An exam question in which students must uniquely associate prompts and
options is called a ___________ question.” Answer: Matching.

Short answer questions can also be used to test higher thinking skills, including
analysis or evaluation.

For example:

“Will you include short answer questions on your next exam? Please justify your
decision with two to three sentences explaining the factors that have influenced
your decision.”

Short answer questions have many advantages. Many instructors report that they
are relatively easy to construct and can be constructed faster than multiple choice
questions. Unlike matching, true/false, and multiple-choice questions, short answer
questions make it difficult for students to guess the answer. Short answer questions
provide students with more flexibility to explain their understanding and demonstrate
creativity than they would have with multiple choice questions; this also means that
scoring is relatively laborious and can be quite subjective. Short answer
questions provide more structure than essay questions and thus are often easy and faster
to mark and often test a broader range of the course content than full essay questions.

Tips for writing good short answer items:

Type of Avoid Do use
question
All short- • Trivia • Your own words
answer • Long / complex sentences • Specific problems
• Direct questions

Fill-in-the- • Taking out so many words that the • Prompts that omit only one or two key
blank sentence is meaningless words at the end of the sentence

Suggestion: When using short answer questions to test student knowledge of definitions
consider having a mix of questions, some that supply the term and require the students
to provide the definition, and other questions that supply the definition and require that
students provide the term. The latter sort of questions can be structured as fill-in-the-
blank questions. This mix of formats will better test student knowledge because it doesn’t
rely solely on recognition or recall of the term.

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Essays

Essay questions provide a complex prompt that requires written responses, which
can vary in length from a couple of paragraphs to many pages. Like short answer
questions, they provide students with an opportunity to explain their understanding and
demonstrate creativity, but make it hard for students to arrive at an acceptable answer by
bluffing. They can be constructed reasonably quickly and easily but marking these
questions can be time-consuming and grader agreement can be difficult.

Essay questions differ from short answer questions in that the essay questions are
less structured. This openness allows students to demonstrate that they can integrate the
course material in creative ways. As a result, essays are a favoured approach to test higher
levels of cognition including analysis, synthesis and evaluation. However, the
requirement that the students provide most of the structure increases the amount of work
required to respond effectively. Students often take longer to compose a five-paragraph
essay than they would take to compose five one paragraph answers to short answer
questions. This increased workload limits the number of essay questions that can be
posted on a single exam and thus can restrict the overall scope of an exam to a few topics
or areas. To ensure that this doesn’t cause students to panic or blank out, consider giving
the option of answering one of two or more questions.

Tips for writing good essay items:

Avoid Do use
• Complex, ambiguous wording • Your own words
• Questions that are too broad to • Words like ‘compare’ or ‘contrast’ at the beginning
allow time for an in-depth of the question
response • Clear and unambiguous wording
• A breakdown of marks to make expectations clear
• Time limits for thinking and writing

Suggestions: Distribute possible essay questions before the exam and make your
marking criteria slightly stricter. This gives all students an equal chance to prepare and
should improve the quality of the answers – and the quality of learning – without
making the exam any easier.

Oral Exams

Oral examinations allow students to respond directly to the instructor’s questions

and/or to present prepared statements. These exams are especially popular in language
courses that demand ‘speaking’ but they can be used to assess understanding in almost
any course by following the guidelines for the composition of short answer questions.
Some of the principle advantages to oral exams are that they provide nearly immediate
feedback and so allow the student to learn as they are tested. There are two main
drawbacks to oral exams: the amount of time required and the problem of record-keeping.
Oral exams typically take at least ten to fifteen minutes per student, even for a midterm
exam. As a result, they are rarely used for large classes. Furthermore, unlike written
exams, oral exams don’t automatically generate a written record. To ensure that students
have access to written feedback, it is recommended that instructors take notes during oral
exams using a rubric and/or checklist and provide a photocopy of the notes to the
students.

In many departments, oral exams are rare. Students may have difficulty adapting
to this new style of assessment. In this situation, consider making the oral exam optional.

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While it can take more time to prepare two tests, having both options allows students to
choose the one which suits them and their learning style best.

Computational

Computational questions require that students perform calculations in order to

solve for an answer. Computational questions can be used to assess student’s memory of
solution techniques and their ability to apply those techniques to solve both questions
they have attempted before and questions that stretch their abilities by requiring that they
combine and use solution techniques in novel ways.

Effective computational questions should:

• Be solvable using knowledge of the key concepts and techniques from the
course. Before the exam solve them yourself or get a teaching assistant to
attempt the questions.
• Indicate the mark breakdown to reinforce the expectations developed in in-
class examples for the amount of detail, etc. required for the solution.

To prepare students to do computational questions on exams, make sure to

describe and model in class the correct format for the calculations and answer
including:

• How students should report their assumptions and justify their choices
• The units and degree of precision expected in the answer

Suggestion: Have students divide their answer sheets into two columns: calculations in
one, and a list of assumptions, description of process and justification of choices in the
other. This ensures that the marker can distinguish between a simple mathematical
mistake and a profound conceptual error and give feedback accordingly.

Selected references:

Cunningham, G.K. (1998). Assessment in the Classroom. Bristol, PA: Falmer Press.
Ward, A.W., & Murray-Ward, M. (1999). Assessment in the Classroom. Belmont, CA:
Wadsworth Publishing Co.

Part I: Choose a Grade level and topic in line with your specialization then construct a
test question from the chosen topic.
1) 5 items multiple choice
2) 5 items true/false
3) 10 items matching,
4) 5 items short answer
5) 1 essay
6) 1 oral
7) 1 computational (if possible only)

Part II: From the topic Exam Questions: Types, Characteristics, and Suggestions
create a 30-item test using any of the following types of tests. Post your questions on
our fb group.

Deadline: September 30, 2021 @ 5:00 pm

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