Section VI. Item Writing GuidelinesChecklist for Item Writing Guidelines
√ Items must measure the objectives they are designed to address.^
√ Items must have only ONE clearly correct answer.
√ Items must be at the appropriate level of difficulty.
√ The language used in items must be simple, direct, and free of ambiguity.
√ Items must not ask about trivial information.
√ Items must NOT provide clues within an item or within a test form.
√ Items must reflect good and current teaching practices in the field.
√ Items must be free from grammatical errors.
√
Item must be free from bias.
-Ethnic
-Gender
-Geographic
-Socioeconomic√
Items must avoid referring to topics or issues that may be deemed controversial,
offensive, or emotionally-charged, such as death, divorce, drug use, politics, religion,
sex, unemployment [unless standards explicitly address these topics].Science-Specific Checklist
√ The stem should be meaningful by itself and should present a definite problem.
√ The use of internal or beginning blanks in completion type MC items should be avoided.
√ Use negatively-stated stem only when significant learning outcomes require it...
√ All distractors should be plausible.
√ The relative length of the options should not provide a clue to the answer.
√ Do NOT use “all of the above” or “none of the above.”
√ Present options in a logical, systematic order.
√ The response options should include reasonable misconceptions and errors.
√ The response options do NOT deny the truth of the stem.
√
No two options should be EXACT opposites of each other [and the answer is one of
them] UNLESS the remaining two options are plausible EXACT opposites of each other.
Section VI. Item Writing Guidelines