Multiple Choice Question

1. Mandalay University of Foreign Languages
Department of English
E-634

2. Designing a Multiple Choice
Question
Submitted by
2/Mahar-Engl-2 Ma Shwe Sin Win

3. Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Anatomy of A Multiple Choice Question
3. Guidelines for Writing a Good Multiple Choice
Question
3.1.Guidelines for Writing the Stem
3.2.Guidelines for Building the Alternatives
4. Strengths and Weaknesses of Multiple Choice
Questions
5. Conclusion

4. 1. Introduction
Multiple-choice question is
• the most common type of selected-response
items
•widely used due to their versatility in
assessing a range of learning objectives
•popular because of reliability and economical
scoring

5. 2. Anatomy of a Multiple Choice
Question

6. 3. Guidelines for Writing a Good
Multiple Choice Question
3.1. Guidelines for Writing the Stem
The stem
 should be meaningful by itself
 should not contain irrelevant materials
 should be written in the simplest, clearest
and unambiguous way

7. 3. Guidelines for Writing a
Good Multiple Choice Question
should be free of irrelevant material
should state positive
should avoid clues
should include the words common to the alternatives
should put as much of the necessary wording as possible

8. 3.2. Guidelines for Building the Alternatives
1. There should be 3 to 4 answer options.
2. All answer options should be plausible.
3. Distractors should be clearly incorrect.
4. “All of the Above” and “None of the Above” should not be
answer options.
5. Answer options should all be grammatically consistent with stem.
6. Answer options should not be longer than the stem.
7. Order of answer options should be logical or random.
8. All the options should be listed vertically.

9. 4.Strengths and Limitations of Multiple Choice
Questions
Strengths
1.Achievement of learning outcomes can be assessed.
2. Highly structured and clear tasks are provided.
3. A broad sample of achievement can be assessed.
4. Incorrect alternatives provide diagnostic information.
5. Scores are less influenced by guessing than true-false
items.

10. 4.Strengths and Limitations of Multiple Choice
Questions
6. Scores are more reliable than subjectively scored
items
7. Scoring is easy, objective, and reliable.
8. Item analysis can reveal how difficult each item
was.
9. Achievement can be compared from class to class
and year to year
10. Can cover a lot of materials very efficiently

11. 4.Strengths and Limitations of
Multiple Choice Questions
Limitations
1. Constructing good items is time consuming.
2. It is frequently difficult to find plausible distractors.
3. MCQ can be ineffective for assessing some types of problem
solving.
4. Scores can be influenced by reading ability.
5. There is a lack of feedback on individual thought processes

12. 4.Strengths and Limitations of
Multiple Choice Questions
6. Students can read more into the question than was intended.
7. MCQs fails to test higher levels of cognitive thinking.
8. Sometimes there is more than one defensible “correct” answer.
9. They place a high degree of dependence the instructor’s writing ability.
10. MCQs do not provide an assessment of writing ability.
11. They may encourage guessing.
12. Cheating may be facilitated.

14. 5. Conclusion
• MCQ were developed to overcome a number of the
weaknesses of the composition test
• The test writer can get directly at many of the specific skills
and learnings he wishes to measure
• The examinee cannot evade difficult problems as he often
can with composition