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Guidelines for Constructing Effective Test Items
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.
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Guidelines for Constructing Effective Test Items
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- 5. Advantages • Multiple-choice tests measurea 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 isa 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 thelength 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 notmake 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 yousee why a would be the best guess given the phrasing?)
- 11. 5. Avoid theexact 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 Mediterraneanregion, 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.
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- 14. Advantages • True/false itemsare 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 certainthat the statement is entirely true or entirely false.
- 16. 2. Convey onlyone thought or idea in a true/false statement
- 17. Poor: Bloom’s cognitivetaxonomy 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 learnersto write a short explanation of why false answers are incorrect.
- 19. 4. Beware ofdetectable answer patterns. Students can pick out patterns such as (TTTTFFFF) which might be designed to make scoring easier.
- 20. 5. Beware ofwords 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.
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- 22. Advantages • A largeamount 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 thenumber 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 thelength of the items to a word, phrase, or brief sentence. In general, make the items as short as possible.
- 26. 5. Provide oneor 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 thequestion 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 theexpected 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 ascoring key that contains all acceptable answers for each item.
- 32. 3. Beware ofopen questions that invite unexpected but reasonable answers.
- 33. Poor: The firstpresident 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: _____.
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- 35. 1. Inform studentsof the grading criteria and conditions.
- 36. 2. Do notgive students a choice of essays; have all respond to the same questions.
- 37. 3. Allow sufficienttime to answer to give the students to outline first.
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