How To Rate Your Tests

(Obtained from Leon Boucher)

1. Keep the reading difficulty of items low.
2. Do not lift a statement verbatim from a textbook.
3. Take care that one item does not provide clues for another item.
4. The stem of the item (main statement) should contain all of the information needed to answer the question—even if the student is not provided the response choices.
5. If an item is based on an opinion or authority, indicate whose opinion or what authority it was taken from.
6. Avoid the use of interlocking or independent items.
7. Let the occurrence of correct responses follow a random pattern.
8. Avoid trick or catch questions.
9. Avoid ambiguity.
10. Beware of items dealing with trivia.
11. Be sure there is one and only one correct or clearly best answer.
12. Items designed to measure understandings, insights, or the ability to apply principles should be presented in novel terms.
13. Beware of slang associations.
14. Beware of irrelevant grammatical clues.
15. Avoid the use of one pair of opposites as options if one of the pair is the correct or best answer.
16. Beware of the use of "none of these", "one of the above", or "all of the above" as options.
17. Use the negative sparingly in the stem of the item.

1. Must be limited to item that are definitely true or false.
2. Often used for specific, isolated, or trivial facts.
3. Can be used to test meanings and definitions of terms.
4. Has a high guess factor.
5. Beware of "specific determiners." (1) The question is usually false when "all", "always", "no", "never", and other all-inclusive terms are used. (2) The question is usually true when "usually" or "sometimes" is used.
6. Beware of ambiguous and indefinite terms of degree or amount (frequently, greatly, to a considerable degree)
7. Beware of negative statements and double negatives.
8. Avoid items that contain more than one statement, particularly when one is true and one is false.
9. Avoid items where the correct answer depends upon one insignificant word, phrase, or letter.

1. The items in a set should be homogeneous.
2. The number of answer choices should be greater than the number of problems presented.
3. The set of items should be relatively short. Long matching sets are extremely hard to complete.
4. Response options should be arranged in logical order.
5. The directions should indicate whether an answer choice may be used more than once.

1. Good for testing knowledge of vocabulary, identification of concepts, ability to solve math problems.
2. Beware of indefinite or "open" completion items.
3. Omit only key words.
4. Do not leave too many blanks in a single statement.
5. Blanks are better put near the end of a statement.
6. If a problem requires a numerical answer, indicate the units in which it is to be expressed.

1. Before writing the question, know exactly what mental process of the student you want to bring out.
2. Start essay questions with "compare", "contrast", "give the reasons for", "present the arguments for and against", "give an original example of", "explain how or why".
3. Use clear, precise questions.
4. Don’t ask "what do you think", or "in your opinion", or "write all you know about".
5. Do not have too many questions for the time available.
6. Do not mix essay and objective questions when time is limited.
7. Do not offer a choice of questions to be answered.
8. Make a list of all pertinent points that should be covered in the student’s answer for each question. Use these when grading.