How to Construct Multiple Choice Questions

Multiple-Choice items consist of two parts; the stem and the response options. The stem presents the question or problem. The options include the correct or best answer – the keyed response – and the distracters or foils

Item Stem Guidelines

1. Write an item as either a direct question. Often one form or the other will produce simpler and clearer wording. If not, the question form may be easier for the writer and more straightforward for the student.
2. Present a single, complete problem or question in the stem. Most of the reading should be in the stem.
3. Eliminate excess wording, include only what is necessary to present the problem or question.
4. Include in the stem all the information needed to arrive at an unambiguous answer to the item.
5. Include in the stem any words that would be repeated in each option
6. Use an introductory sentence for the item if it seems useful. Two sentences may express the problem more clearly than one.
7. Write completion items with the blank at the end rather than the beginning or middle of the sentence.
8. Avoid the use of negative wording in items. If negative are necessary, emphasize them with bolding, underlining or capitalization. Do not use negatives in either the stem or the response because double negatives can be confusing.
9. Do not write items that require a series of true-false answers, e.g questions of the form “Which of the following is true?”
10. Make sure that items are independent. The information in one item should not supply the answer to another.
11. To test understanding and interpretation rather than factual knowledge, ask the questions “How?” and “Why?” rather than “Who?” and “When”.

 Item Options Guidelines

1. Be sure there is one best response to the item. Options must be mutually exclusive and not overlap.
2. Make the length of the options comparable. Avoid over qualifying the keyed response
3. Make the options parallel in form
4. Make all options grammatically consistent with the stem
5. Don’t use absolute language, such as ‘never’ and ‘always’ as a means of making options incorrect.
6. Don’t repeat key words from the stem in  the keyed option
7. Don’t use stereotyped language that may cue the keyed option
8. Make the distracters plausible and equally attractive to students who do not know the correct response.
9. Use 3-5 options. Four or five options are desirable to reduce guessing, but a good item with three options can be useful. Do not discard an item with only three good options or add implausible options, but make the number of options consistent.
10. List the options in a logical order if there is one
11. Present the options in a list format rather than in a paragraph with the stem
12. Distribute the correct option randomly among the option positions.
13. Don’t make the options overly wordy or confusing
14. Don’t use “All of the above” as an option. “None of the above” should not be used as an option with “best answer” items but can be used effectively with computational items
15. Sometimes it may be easier to write correct than incorrect options for an item. It is legitimate to ask students to choose the option that is not correct, but heed the caveats regarding negatives in item stem guideline 8, above.
16. It can be helpful to define the class of things to which the correct answer belongs, and then write distracters based on members of that class
17. Consider as distracters responses that are correct but do not answer the question posed by the stem
18. Obtain distracters from responses of students to items administered in completion or short answer form.