The document provides guidelines for constructing different types of assessment items including multiple choice, true/false, matching, short answer, and essay items. For multiple choice items, it recommends making all answer options plausible, reducing wordiness, and avoiding obvious correct answers. For true/false items, it advises ensuring statements are entirely true or false and conveying only one idea per statement. Matching items should have no more than 6-7 items and include extra distractors. Short answer items require a scoring key and avoid open-ended questions. Essay items need grading criteria and conditions explained to students.

1. What is
assessment?

2. Are we
really
teaching,
what
we’re
teaching?

3. Guidelines for
Constructing
Effective Test
Items
-KimverlyTorres

4. Guidelines for
Constructing Multiple
Choice Items

5. Advantages
• Multiple-choice
tests measure a
variety of learning
levels.
• • They are easy to
grade.
Disadvantages
• Multiple-choice tests
evaluate recognition
(choosing an answer)
rather than recall
(constructing an answer)
• They allow for guessing
• They are fairly difficult
to construct

6. 1. Make the
content
meaningful. Do not
test trivial or
unimportant facts.
Poor: Skinner developed programmed
instruction in _____.
a. 1953
b. 1954 (correct)
c. 1955
d. 1956
Better: Skinner developed
programmed instruction in _____.
a. 1930s
b. 1940s
c. 1950s (correct)
d. 1970s

7. Poor: What is a claw hammer?
a. a woodworking tool (correct)
b. a musical instrument
c. a gardening tool
d. a shoe repair tool
Better: What is a claw hammer?
a. a woodworking tool (correct)
b. a metalworking tool
c. an autobody tool
d. a sheetmetal tool
2. Make all alternatives
plausible as correct
responses. To make sure
your alternatives are
plausible, define the class
of things to which all of
the answer choices should
belong.

8. 3. Reduce the length of the alternatives by moving as many
words as possible to the stem. The rationale is that
additional words in the alternatives have to be read four or
five times, in the stem only once.
Poor: The mean is _____.
a. a measure of the average (correct)
b. a measure of the midpoint
c. a measure of the most popular score
d. a measure of the dispersion scores.
Better: The mean is a measure of the _____.
a. average (correct)
b. midpoint
c. most popular score
d. dispersion of scores

9. 4. Do not make the correct answer stand out as a
result of its phrasing or length.
Poor: A narrow strip of land bordered on both sides of water is called an
_____.
a. isthmus (correct)
b. peninsula
c. bayou
d. continent
Better: A narrow strip of land bordered on both sides by water is called
a(n) _____.
a. isthmus (correct)
b. peninsula
c. bayou
d. continent

10. (Note: Do you see why
a would be the best
guess given the
phrasing?)

11. 5. Avoid the exact wording of a
source material. This places too
much emphasis on simple
memory and barely tests
cognitive acquisition at the
knowledge level.

12. In the Mediterranean region, cattle raising is
handicapped by:
a. A hot climate
b. Lack of demand for beef
c. A lack of sufficient productive pasturage
d. High labor costs
The correct choice, "C," may be obvious from its
length and explicitness alone.
6. The length, explicitness, or degree of
technicality of alternatives should not vary
with correctness.

13. Guidelines for
Constructing
True/False Items

14. Advantages
• True/false items are fairly easy to
write
• They are very easy to grade
Disadvantages
• True/false items can only test for
factual information
• They allow for a high probability
(50%) of guessing the correct
answer
• They limit assessments to lower
levels of learning (knowledge and

15. 1. Be certain that the
statement is entirely true
or entirely false.

16. 2. Convey only one
thought or idea in a
true/false statement

17. Poor: Bloom’s cognitive taxonomy of
objectives includes six levels of objectives,
the
lowest being knowledge. (True/False)
Better: Bloom’s cognitive taxonomy
includes six levels of objectives.
(True/False)
Knowledge is the lowest-level objective in
Bloom’s cognitive taxonomy. (True/False)

18. 3. Require learners to write
a short explanation of why
false answers are incorrect.

19. 4. Beware of detectable answer
patterns. Students can pick out
patterns such as (TTTTFFFF)
which might be designed to
make scoring easier.

20. 5. Beware of words denoting
indefinite degree. The use of
words like “more,” “less,”
“important,” “unimportant,”
“large,” “small,” “recent,” “old,”
“tall,” “great,” and so on, can
easily lead to ambiguity.

21. Guidelines for
Constructing
Matching Items

22. Advantages
• A large amount of material can be
condensed to fit in less space
• Students have substantially fewer
chances for guessing correct
associations than
on multiple-choice and true/false tests
Disadvantage
• Matching tests cannot effectively test
higher order intellectual skills

23. 1. Limit the number of
items to a maximum of
six or seven. It becomes
very confusing for
learners to try to match
a greater amount.

24. 2. Provide directions. Students
should not have to ask, for
example, whether options may
be used more than once.

25. 4. Limit the length of the items to a word,
phrase, or brief sentence. In general, make
the items as short as possible.

26. 5. Provide one or two extra items
(distractors) in the second column.
Their inclusion reduces the probability
of correct guessing. This also eliminates
the situation that may occur in equal-
sized lists, where if one match is
incorrect, a second match must also be
incorrect.

27. 6. Keep the question to one page
and on the same page. Arrange
items so that students will not
have to turn pages back and
forth as they respond.

28. Guidelines for
Constructing SHORT-
ANSWER, FILL IN
THE BLANK,
COMPLETION Items

29. Advantages
• Since the expected
answers are specific,
scoring can be fairly
objective
• These tests can test
a large amount of
content within a
given time period
Disadvantages
• These test items are
limited to testing lower-
level cognitive
objectives, such as the
recall of facts
• Scoring may not be as
straightforward and
objective as anticipated

31. 2. Prepare a scoring
key that contains all
acceptable answers
for each item.

32. 3. Beware of open
questions that invite
unexpected but
reasonable answers.

33. Poor: The first president of the United
States was _____. (two words)
(Note: The desired answer is George
Washington, but students may write “from
Virginia”, “a general”, and other creative
expressions.)
Better: Give the first and last name of the
first president of the United States: _____.

34. Guidelines for
Constructing Essay
Items

35. 1. Inform students of the
grading criteria and
conditions.

36. 2. Do not give students a choice
of essays; have all respond to the
same questions.

37. 3. Allow sufficient time to
answer to give the students
to outline first.

38. KimTorres
III-BSE
Thank You!


39. http://tamannakalim.wordpress.com/2013/10/2
2/guideline-for-constructing-effective-test-
items/
http://webs.rtc.edu/ii/Teaching%20Resources/G
uidelinesforWritingTest.htm
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