Multiple Choice Questions

We have composed lots of Multiple Choice Questions suitable for various examinations like railway, bank, JEE, etc.

A multiple choice question (MCQ) is composed of two parts: a stem that identifies the question or problem, and a set of alternatives or possible answers that contain a key that is the best answer to the question, and a number of distractors that are plausible but incorrect answers to the question. Students respond to Multiple Choice Questions by indicating the alternative that they believe best answers or completes the stem. There are many advantages to using Multiple Choice Questions for assessment. One key advantage is that the questions are easy to mark and can even be scored by a computer, which makes them an attractive assessment approach for large classes. Well designed Multiple Choice Questions allow testing for a wide breadth of content and objectives and provide an objective measurement of student ability.

The following suggestions for designing Multiple Choice Questions are organized into three sections:

General strategies,
Designing stems, and
Designing alternatives.

General strategies

Write questions throughout the term.
Instruct students to select the “best answer” rather than the “correct answer”.
Use familiar language.
Avoid giving verbal association clues from the stem in the key.
Avoid trick questions.
Avoid negative wording.

Designing stems

Express the full problem in the stem.
Put all relevant material in the stem.
Eliminate excessive wording and irrelevant information from the stem.

Designing alternatives

Limit the number of alternatives.
Make sure there is only one best answer.
Make the distractors appealing and plausible.
Make the choices grammatically consistent with the stem.
Place the choices in some meaningful order.
Randomly distribute the correct response.
Refrain from using words such as always, never, all, or none.
Avoid overlapping choices.

Multiple Choice Questions

General strategies

Designing stems

Designing alternatives