How Can I Make My Multiple Choice Tests More Effective?

Today’s 20 Minute Monday Morning Mentor is by Linda Suskie and talks about making your exams more effective. If you haven’t seen this short video, contact Nicole to get access to the video– it has many helpful tips to make your exams more effective. Linda’s supplemental materials include a blueprint for creating an examination that can also be used by students as a study guide. She also provides many useful tips on creating questions.

Here are a few tips that I found important:

• Do not ask questions on trivia or common knowledge.
• Avoid negative items and if you must use them, underline  and bold the NOT or EXCEPT.
• Order responses numerically or alphabetically if single words are used.
• Make Alternatives roughly all the same length.

There are many other tips, so be sure to contact Nicole D. for the link and check out her video and her “examples” handout.