The Art of Multiple Choice Quiz Writing: Terminology
As with anything, quiz question writing has its own set of jargon.
Stem - The question.
- Avoid negative in the stem. “Which of the terms is NOT important?”
- Match your stems to your objectives. List the objectives on the assessment and write questions for each objective.
- Write clear and concise stems that the learner should not have to reread multiple times to understand what you are asking.
Responses - The choices.
- Ensure that you include a correct response.
- Avoid responses that include: A and B, Only A and B, None of the Above, and All of the Above. These are often confusing and cause unnecessary student analysis.
- Make all responses approximately the same length visually.
- Do not include obvious fluff responses that are clearly not the correct response.
- Do not attempt to trick or tempt your students into answering incorrectly.
- Remember one answer needs to be clearly correct.
Remember, well written stems and responses aid you in assessing the knowledge that your learners have gained.