19 tips for creating better test questions

Approximate reading time: 1m 17s

When designing your next e-learning course, you can use the tips below. They will help you improve the effectiveness of your tests.

Tip 1: Questions should be directly related to the learning objectives and course content.

Tip 2: All questions should incorporate feedback to guide the learner to the correct answer.

Tip 3: Questions should not contain analogies, cultural references, humour.

Tip 4: Questions should not consist of complex sentences, ambiguous phrases or jargon.

Tip 5: Questions should not be misleading - this includes questions with more than one correct answer, ambiguous or abstract possible answers.

Tip 6: If possible, avoid true/false questions.

Tip 7: Possible answers should begin with the same word - if you make an exception, the word you choose to begin any answer must be present in the question.

Tip 8: All questions must contain the same number of possible answers.

Tip 9: Questions must have at least 3-4 possible answers (only one correct answer).

Tip 10: It is not advisable for questions to contain possible answers such as 'all of the following' or 'none of the following'.

Tip 11: All possible answers should be realistic and plausible.

Tip 12: All possible answers should be in correct syntax and relevant to the question.

Tip 13: All possible answers should be approximately the same length.

Tip 14: All possible answers should be equally detailed.

Tip 15: Possible answers should not overlap or be too close.

Tip 16: Questions should not contain negative parts of speech - 'Which of the following terms does NOT...'. If you cannot avoid it, negative parts of speech should be capitalized.

Tip 17: All correct possible answers should be contained in the training material.

Tip 18: Check your questions and answers several times for spelling, grammatical, etc. errors.

Tip 19: Questions and possible answers should not contain absolute terms such as 'always' and 'only'.

Services

NIT-New Internet Technologies Ltd. offers test development in electronic format. Depending on your needs and preferences, they can be of different designs - from classic test look to modern interactivity.

If you are interested in our services or have additional questions, you can contact us at +359 2 850 53 64, e-mail: office@nitbg.com or by filling in the contact form below.