Checklist for reviewing MCQs and Review the quality of your MCQs
Checklist for reviewing MCQs
After you’ve drafted your multiple-choice questions, consider reviewing them with this checklist to make sure the guidelines have been applied.
Stem
Address a single, clearly outlined problem to be answered by one of the choices.
Include as much of the question as possible in the stem instead of repeating the same set of words at the beginning of the alternatives.
Include only relevant information in the stem.
Use only clear and straightforward language when designing the stem.
Use positive wording unless knowing what “not to do” is important.
Alternatives
Avoid absolute terms: always, never, only.
Avoid “All of the above.”
Avoid “None of the above.”
Avoid overlapping content.
Avoid repeating keywords or verbal associations from the stem in one of the alternatives.
Ensure distractors are not obvious.
Keep alternatives grammatically parallel and consistent with the stem.
Use concise wording to minimize student confusion.
Use plausible and attractive distractors (avoid padding the item with implausible distractors).
Write distractors of similar length.
Write in positive terms.
Review the quality of your MCQs
Wondering how well you did at writing MCQs? If you give students MCQ exams facilitated by the Exam Office, they will send you a “Test Item Statistics Report” sometime after the end of term. This report, also known as an “item analysis report,” is sent to you along with the exam results. The report provides information, such as:
How difficult your questions were.
How well your questions discriminated.
How well your distractors worked.
For help with interpreting the numbers:
Interpretation report (McGill Exam Office)
Learning and assessing with multiple-choice questions in college classrooms (Parkes & Zimmaro, 2016)[1]: Ch. 6 Improving Your Tests offers detailed explanations and concrete examples of what the numbers mean, with emphasis on the importance of interpreting numbers in context.
References
[1]Parkes, J., & Zimmaro, D. (2016). Learning and assessing with multiple-choice questions in college classrooms. Routledge.
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