Research School Network: Multiple choice questions and accurate assessment A short summary of the Evidence Based Education’s review on effective multiple choice questions

Taking a test often does more than assess knowledge, tests can provide opportunities for learning (Roediger and Karpicke, 2006). When assessments are of high quality they enable teachers to more easily ascertain where the learner is, how far they are from where they need to be and how to get them there.

The value of MCQs:

MCQs have traditionally been used for testing facts and skills deemed to lower order, however well planned MCQs can explore higher level thinking and create a desirable difficulty which can provide greater insights than simply asking a question. For example if a group of students were to all choose a plausible, but ultimately incorrect answer, then exploring their particular choice of incorrect answer may shine a spotlight on the exact specifics of their misunderstanding.

MCQ ​‘s provide highly reliable information in comparison to other forms of tests, as there is minimal scope for inter-rater variability. Their short nature also means a wider range of topics can be covered in comparison to more extended open ended questions., while also being much quicker to mark and provide feedback on.

As with any form of testing there are some limitations, for example students could just guess the correct answer. Statistically speaking though the chances of them getting every question right by guessing is very low. They also do not allow you to assess application of knowledge, such as writing skills. While they are quick to mark, high quality MCQ s are hard to construct and take a significant amount of time and planning. An interesting side note is that MCQ results can be influenced by risk taking, with risk song traits being more common in boys and certain socio-economic/cultural groups.

Designing a Multiple Choice Test:

MCTs should cover all aspects of your curriculum, not just a small part. To support this it can be worthwhile creating a table of constructs/​learning objectives in the scheme of work and ensuring that:

- All constructs are covered

- An appropriate number of questions is given to each aspect (dependent on its importance)

- The command word (i.e. state, define, name, describe) are also appropriately balanced.

Steps to creating an effective Multiple Choice test:

- Decide on the number of questions needed

- Consider the amount of time you are willing to spend on the assessment

- Ten is generally considered sufficient to give a fair representation of constructs.

- Decide on the skills that are useful for accessing the content of the assessment (Skills may include identify, interpret, analyze, calculate)

- Decide on what you want to assess – what learning outcomes/​constructs do you want to assess?

- Ensure that the things you decide to include are relevant and will give you information that you can act upon.

- Determine the weighting/​percentage of questions that will address each skill/​construct.


Evidence Based Education uses these steps to create a blueprint tool/​table for designing MCQs.

Designing multiple choice questions:

MCQs consist of two parts; the stem and the alternatives. The stem should include a question which focuses on a specific construct, while the alternatives include the correct answer and incorrect alternatives. The incorrect alternatives should be similar in context and be plausible to create a degree of desirable difficulty. It is also important that the correct answer shouldn’t be longer than the alternatives as this can often be interpreted as a clue.

The vocabulary of questions should be accessible, and should avoid negative phrasing such as ​“which of these is not a…” or phrases such as ​“never, always, usually”.

Interpreting the data:

When analysing student responses, the effective use of the alternatives will help you identify misconceptions in your pupils’ learning. If a distractor (plausible but incorrect answer) is chosen by less than 5% of students, it may be that it needs to be replaced or amended to ensure it provides sufficient desirable difficulty. It may also be indicative of a very solid understanding of that construct and therefore potentially the need to move onto assessing other constructs. As with any form of formative assessment, what you do once you have knowledge of students misconceptions is vitally important – making decision to re-teach content, address whole class misconceptions or re-visit material that students seem to have a weaker knowledge base in should result in fixing these knowledge gaps and therefore result in improved learning outcomes.