Multiple

Choice Tests
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The multiple choice type of test offers the student with more than
two (2) options per item to choose from.
Each item in a multiple choice test consists of two parts:
(a) the stem and
(b) the options.
In the set of options, there is a "correct" or "best" option while all the
others are considered "distracters."
The distracters are chosen in such a way that they are attractive to
those who do not know the answer or who are guessing but at the same
time, have no appeal to those who actually know the answer. It is this
feature of multiple choice type tests that allows the teacher to test higher
order thinking skills even if the options are clearly stated.
Guidelines for
Constructing
Multiple Choice
Items
1 Do not use unfamiliar words,
terms and phrases!
The ability of the item to discriminate or its level of difficulty
should stem from the subject matter rather than from the wording of the
question.
Example:
What would be the system reliability of a computer system whose
slave and peripherals are connected in parallel circuits and each one has
a known time to failure probability of 0.05?
A student completely unfamiliar with the terms "slave" and
peripherals may not be able to answer correctly even if he knew the
subject matter of reliability.
2 Do not use modifiers
that are vague!
Do not use modifiers that are vague and whose meanings can differ
from one person to the next such as:
much, often, usually, etc.
Example:
Much of the process of photosynthesis takes place in the
a. bark b. leaf c. Stem
The qualifier "much" is vague and could have been replaced by
more specific qualifiers like: "90% of the photosynthetic process" or
some similar phrase that would be more precise. Be quantitative.
3
Avoid complex or awkward word arrangements
and use of negatives in the stem !

Avoid complex or awkward word arrangements. Also, avoid use of

negatives in the stem as this may add unnecessary comprehension
difficulties.
Example:
(Poor) As President of the Republic of the Philippines, Corazon
Cojuangco Aquino would stand next to which President of the
Philippine Republic subsequent to the 1986 EDSA Revolution? (Better)
Who was the President of the Philippines after Corazon C. Aquino?
4 Do not use negatives or double
negatives!
Do not use negatives or double negatives as such statements tend to be
confusing. It is best to use simpler sentences rather than sentences that would
require expertise in grammatical construction.
Example:
(Poor) Which of the following will not cause inflation in the Philippine
economy?
(Better) Which of the following will cause inflation in the Philippine economy?
Poor: What does the statement "Development patterns acquired during the
formative years are NOT Unchangeable" imply?
Better: What does the statement Development patterns acquired during the
formative years are changeable" imply?
5 Each item stem should be as
short as possible!

Each item stem should be as short as

possible:
otherwise you risk testing more for reading
and comprehension skills.
6 Distracters should be equally
plausible and attractive!
Example:
The short story: May Day's Eve, was written by which Filipino author?
a. Jose Garcia Villa
b. Nick Joaquin
c. Genoveva Edrosa Matute
d. Robert Frost
e. Edgar Allan Poe
If distracters had all been Filipino authors, the value of the item would be
greatly increased. In this particular instance, only the first three carry the
burden of the entire item since the last two can be essentially disregarded by the
students.
7 Options should be grammatically
consistent with the stem!
All multiple choice options should be grammatically consistent with the
stem.
Example:
As compared to the autos of the 1960s autos in the 1980s ________.
A. traveling slower C. to use less fuel
B. bigger interiors D. contain more safety measures
Option A, B and C are obviously wrong for the language smart because
when added to the stem the sentence is grammatically wrong. D is the only
option which when connected to the stem retains the grammatical accuracy of
the sentence, thus obviously is the correct answer.
8
The length, explicitness, or degree of technicality of
alternatives should not be the determinants of the
correctness of the answer!
Example:
If the three angles of two triangles are congruent, then the triangles are:
a. congruent whenever one of the sides of the triangles are congruent
b. similar
c. equiangular and/therefore, must also be congruent
d. equilateral if they are equiangular
The correct choice, "b," may be obvious from its length and explicitness
alone. The other choices are long and tend to explain why they must be the
correct choices forcing the students to think that they are, in fact, not the
correct answers!
9 Avoid stems that reveal the
answer to another item!
Example:
1. Who will most strongly disagree with the progressivist who claims that the child
should be taught only that which interests him and if he is not interested, wait till the
child gets interested?
A. Essentialist C. Progressivist
B. Empiricist D. Rationalist
2. Which group will most strongly focus its teaching on the interest of the child? A.
Progressivist C. Perrenialist
B. Essentialist D. Reconstructionist
One may arrive at a correct answer (letter b) by looking at item “1." that gives the
answer to item “2“.
10
Avoid alternatives that are synonymous with
others or those that include or overlap others.

Example:
What causes ice to transform from solid state to liquid state?
a. Change in temperature
b. Changes in pressure
c. Change in the chemical composition
d. Change in heat levels
The options "a" and "d" are essentially the same. Thus, a student who spots these
identical choices would right away narrow down the field of choices to a, b, and c. The
last distracter would play no significant role in increasing the value of the item. If this
happens then the item has two answers, which is not acceptable.
11
Avoid presenting sequenced items in the
same order as in the text.

Avoid presenting sequenced items in the same

order as in the text.
12 Avoid use of assumed
qualifiers!
Avoid use of assumed qualifiers that many
examinees may not be aware of.
13 Avoid use of unnecessary
words or phrases!
Avoid use of unnecessary words or phrases, which are not relevant to the problem at hand
(unless such discriminating ability is the primary intent of the evaluation). The items value is
particularly damaged if the unnecessary material is designed to distract or mislead. Such items test
the student’s reading comprehension rather than knowledge of the subject matter.
Example: The side opposite the thirty degree angle in a right triangle is equal to half the length of
the hypotenuse. If the sine of a 30-degree is 0.5 and its hypotenuse is 5, what is the length of the
side opposite the 30-degree angle?
a. 2.5 c. 5.5
b. 3.5 d. 1.5
The sine of a 30-degree angle is really quite unnecessary since the first sentence already
gives the method for finding the length of the side opposite the thirty-degree angle. This is a case
of a teacher who wants to make sure that no student in his class gets the wrong answer!
14 Avoid use of non-relevant
sources of difficulty!
Avoid use of non-relevant sources of difficulty such as
requiring a complex calculation when only knowledge of a
principle is being tested.
Note in the previous example:
Knowledge of the sine of the 30-degree angle would have led
some students to use the sine formula for calculation even if a
simpler approach would have sufficed.
15 Pack the question in the stem!

Here is an example of a question which has no

question. Avoid it by all means.
Example:
The Roman Empire _____________.
a. had no central government
b. had no definite territory
c. had no heroes
d. had no common religion
16 Avoid using
"None of the above"!
Use the "None of the above" option only when the
keyed answer is totally correct.
When choice of the "best" response is intended,
"none of the above" is not appropriate, since the
implication has already been made that the correct
response may be partially inaccurate.
17 Avoid using
"all of the above "!
Note that use of "all of the above" may allow credit
for partial knowledge.
In a multiple option item, (allowing only one option
choice) if a student only knew that two (2) options were
correct, he could then deduce the correctness of "all of
the above." This assumes you are allowed only one
correct choice.
18 Better still use "none of the above"
and "all of the above" sparingly!
Better still use "none of the above" and
"all of the above" sparingly but best not to
use them at all.
19 Varying the homogeneity or degree
of similarity of responses!
Having compound response choices may purposefully increase difficulty of an
item. The difficulty in a multiple choice item may be controlled by varying the
homogeneity or degree of similarity of responses. The more homogeneous, the more
difficult the item because they all look like the correct answer.
Example:
(Less Homogeneous) Thailand is located in:
a. Southeast Asia c. South America e. Central America
b. Eastern Europe d. East Africa
(More Homogeneous) Thailand is located next to:
a. Laos and Kampuchea c. China and Malaya e. India and Malaya
b. India and China d. Laos and China
The University of Waterloo
does NOT have a building of this name?
● a.) B.C. Matthews Hall
b.) Carl A. Pollock Hall
c.) I.L. Neilson Hall
d.) Douglas Wright Engineering
Building
 A number of books have been published about
the University of Waterloo. These books fall
into various genres such as photographic
histories, biographies of prominent people
involved with the University, and accounts of
the history of individual departments. Among
them was a book whose author is known as
"Simon the Troll". What is the title of this
Book book?

Title
a.) Dreaming in Technicolor
b.) Water Under the Bridge
c.) Of Mud and Dreams
d.) Images of Waterloo
Mirepoix is a ____________.
a. Mixture of onions, carrots, and celery
b. Ingredients for fondant icing
c. Entrée served in France
d. Alternative to flour used in baking
 During what age period is thumb-sucking
likely to produce the greatest psychological
trauma?
A. Infancy
B. Preschool period
Book C. Before adolescence
D. During adolescence
Title E. After adolescence
Decide which
item is better
and why
1A. The promiscuous use of sprays, 1B. Frequent use of sprays, oils, and
oils, and antiseptics in the nose during antiseptics in the nose during a bad
acute colds is a pernicious practice cold may result in: a. the spreading
because it may have a deleterious of the infection to the sinuses
effect on:
b. damage to the olfactory nerve
a. the sinuses
b. red blood cells c. destruction of white blood cells
c. white blood cells d. congestion of the mucous
d. the olfactory nerve membrane in the nose

1B is the better item. 1A is wordy and uses vocabulary that may be

unfamiliar to many students. 1B not only asks what part of the body is
affected (sinuses) but also what is the result (spreading of infection).
4A. Which of the following is a 4B. What is the most complex level
category in the taxonomy of the in the taxonomy of the cognitive
cognitive domain? domain?
A. Reasoning ability
A. Knowledge
B. Critical thinking
B. Synthesis
C. Rote learning
C. Evaluation
D. All of the above
E. None of the above D. Analysis
E. Comprehension

4B is the better item. 4A asks for simple identification of a category, whereas 4B asks
for differentiation between the levels. 4A also contains “all of the above” and “none of
the above” as option choices, which should be avoided, if possible.
2A. In 1965, the death rate from 2B. In 1965, the leading cause of
accidents of all types per 100,000 death per 100,000 population in the
population in the 15-24 age group was:
15-24 age group was from: a.
a. 59.0 respiratory disease
b. 59.1
b. cancer
c. 59.2
c. accidents
d. 59.3
d. rheumatic heart disease

2B is the better item. The difference between the

options in 2A is trivial. Also, 2A asks for
memorization of factual information.
3A. About how many calories are 3B. About how many calories are
recommended daily for a 14-year old recommended daily for a 14-year
who is 62 in. tall, weighs 103 lbs., and
old who is 62 in. tall, weighs 103
is moderately active?
lbs., and is moderately active?
a. 1,500
a. 0
b. 2,000
c. 2,500 b. 2,000

d. 3,000 c. 2,500
d. 3,000

3A is the better item. 3B contains a distractor that

is not plausible (0 calories).
 5A. Which description best Sally’s breakfast this morning
characterizes whole foods? included one glass of orange juice
a. orange juice (from concentrate), one slice of
b. toast toast, a small bowl of bran cereal
c. bran cereal and a grapefruit. What “whole food”
did Sally eat for breakfast?
d. grapefruit
a. orange juice
Use memory-plus application questions. These
b. toast
questions require students to recall principles,
rules or facts in a real life context. The key to c. bran cereal
preparing memory-plus application questions is to
place the concept in a life situation or context that d. grapefruit
requires the student to first recall the facts and
then apply or transfer the application of those facts
into a situation.
 Thanks!
Do you have any questions?

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