We have collected the resources on this page to help you navigate the challenging process of designing effective exam questions that give you reliable indicators of student learning in your course.

• Aligning test questions with learning outcomes
• Creating an exam
• Different types of exam questions
• Designing challenging multiple-choice questions (Examples)
• Grading and validating exam questions

 

Aligning test questions with learning outcomes

Before you write an exam or an assignment, consider what you want students to know or be able to do when they finish your course. Once you have established learning outcomes for your course, the resources below will help you write a fair test or other form of evaluation that accurately assesses your students’ progress toward these goals.

• "Test Construction and Grading"
  Purdue University
• "Assessment and Test Construction"
  University of Western Ontario
• "Evaluation Issues: Testing and Other Forms of Student Evaluation"
  University of North Carolina (See p. 31-33 of this handbook)

Creating an exam

It is often hard to know where to start when sitting down to write an exam. The resources below provide some general guidelines regarding what steps to take when you are starting to write an exam.

• "Test Construction: Some practical Ideas"
  Marilla Svinicki- University of Texas, Austin
• "How to Prepare Better Tests: Guidelines for University Faculty"
  Brigham Young University
• "Designing Tests to Maximize Learning"
  Richard Felder- North Carolina State University
• "General Steps in Test Construction"
  University of Minnesota

Different types of exam questions

Types of exam questions include multiple choice, true/false, short answer and essay questions. When deciding which type(s) of questions(s) to include on an exam it is helpful to consider what learning goals you want to assess. Some types of questions are more effective at assessing one type of goal than another e.g., essay questions are very effective at assessing whether students can build a logical argument or make new connections between concepts, but they are not the most efficient way to measure a student’s ability to recall facts. The resources below will help you weigh the advantages and disadvantages of different types of exam questions as well as provide guidelines for writing good exam questions.

• "How to Write Better Tests: A Handbook for Improving Test Construction Skills"
  Indiana University, Bloomington
• "Constructing Written Test Questions for the Basic and Clinical Sciences"
  National Board of Medical Examiners
• "How to prepare better multiple-choice test items: Guidelines for University Faculty"
  Brigham Young University
• "Best Practices for Designing and Grading Exams"
  Mary E. Piontek- University of Michigan
• "Designing Test Questions"
  The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Designing challenging multiple-choice questions (Examples)

Many believe that multiple-choice questions are only able to test simple recall, but in fact it is possible to design multiple-choice questions that test higher cognitive skills including application, analysis and evaluation. The resources below provide many examples and strategies for how to design challenging multiple-choice questions.

• "Techniques for Writing Multiple Choice Questions that Demand Critical Thinking"
  University of Oregon
• "Biology in Bloom: Implementing Bloom’s Taxonomy to Enhance Student Learning"
  Supplemental Material A – examples of exam questions that assess student learning at multiple levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy
• "Constructing Written Test Questions for the Basic and Clinical Sciences"
  National Board of Medical Examiners
• "Designing and Managing Multiple Choice Questions"
  University of Cape Town
• "How to Write Better Tests: A Handbook for Improving Test Construction Skills"
  Indiana University, Bloomington
• "How to prepare better multiple-choice test items: Guidelines for University Faculty"
  Brigham Young University

Grading and validating exam questions

Once the exam is over, you are faced with the challenge of grading the exam questions as fairly as possible. The resources below provide tips on scoring essay and short answer questions as well as guidelines for determining the validity of multiple-choice questions.

• "Best Practices for Designing and Grading Exams"
  Mary E. Piontek- University of Michigan
• "Test Construction: Some practical Ideas"
  Marilla Svinicki- University of Texas, Austin
• "Designing and Managing Multiple Choice Questions"
  University of Cape Town
• "How to Prepare Better Tests: Guidelines for University Faculty"
  Brigham Young University
• "Evaluation Issues: Testing and Other Forms of Student Evaluation"
  University of North Carolina (See p. 34-38 of this handbook)