Quizzes are an efficient way to gain clear insights into what your students understand and where they need support. This guide can help you choose the right question types and apply simple, research-informed practices to write more effective quiz questions. As you read, focus on one question type at a time and use the tips as a checklist to review or revise your own questions.
Multiple-choice questions ask students to select the best answer from a set of options, including one correct answer and several distractors.
When to use:
- Assess recognition, understanding, or application of concepts
- Efficiently evaluate a broad range of content
- Provide automatically graded assessments
- Diagnose common misconceptions through distractors
Tips for impactful questions:
- Write clear, concise stems that can stand alone
- Avoid grammatical or structural clues to the correct answer
- Use parallel, grammatically consistent answer choices
- Ensure only one best answer; make distractors plausible
- Keep answer choices mutually exclusive and logically ordered
- Avoid negative phrasing (or clearly emphasize it if used)
- Keep response length and formatting consistent
- Avoid “all of the above” / “none of the above” when possible
Multiple-answer questions require students to select more than one correct answer from a list of options.
When to use:
- Assess deeper understanding of multi-faceted concepts
- Reduce guessing compared to single-answer multiple choice
- Evaluate the ability to identify all correct elements of a concept
Tips for impactful questions:
- Ensure all correct answers are clearly correct and all distractors clearly incorrect
- Avoid ambiguity about how many answers to select (state it clearly)
- Apply multiple-choice best practices (clarity, parallel structure, plausibility)
- Avoid partially correct answer choices that could confuse students
True–false questions ask students to determine whether a statement is accurate or not.
When to use:
- Quickly check understanding of key facts or concepts
- Identify common misconceptions
- Use in low-stakes or formative assessments
Tips for impactful questions:
- Write clear, unambiguous statements
- Avoid negatives and double negatives
- Avoid absolutes (e.g., “always,” “never”)
- Focus each statement on a single idea
- Target common misconceptions intentionally
Matching questions ask students to pair related items from two columns (e.g., terms and definitions).
When to use:
- Assess relationships between concepts (e.g., term–definition, cause–effect)
- Evaluate recognition of connections or categories
- Efficiently test multiple associations at once
Tips for impactful questions:
- Keep all items within a single, consistent category
- Write clear, concise prompts and responses
- Avoid overly complex or ambiguous pairings
- Use more response options than prompts (if appropriate)
- Clarify if options may be used more than once or not at all
Short-answer questions require students to generate their own responses without provided options.
When to use:
- Assess recall, explanation, or application of knowledge
- Evaluate student reasoning or ability to articulate ideas
- Encourage deeper thinking beyond recognition
Tips for impactful questions:
- Write clear, specific, and focused prompts
- Limit the scope of expected responses
- Align questions with learning objectives
- Plan scoring criteria in advance (including partial credit)
- Use when manual grading is feasible and valuable
Avoiding common pitfalls
When writing quiz questions, watch out for these common pitfalls:
- Overlapping or inconsistent answer choices: Answer ranges overlap or aren’t evenly structured
- Lack of logical order in answer options: Choices aren’t in a clear sequence (e.g., numerical)
- Vague or incomplete question stems: Question isn’t understandable without the options
- Non-parallel or inconsistent answer phrasing: Grammar/structure doesn’t match across choices
- Repetitive or redundant wording: Unnecessary repeated language across answers
- Grammatical cues that give away the answers: Wording hints at the correct option
- Unnecessary duplication between stem and answers: Repeated phrasing between question and choices
- Negative phrasing that can confuse learners: Uses “not” or “except” unclearly
- Poor formatting of critical words: Key qualifiers aren’t emphasized or are easy to miss
Choosing the right question type and writing clear, effective questions ensures that student responses reflect what they know. By applying these best practices, you can create quizzes that provide meaningful insights and better support student success.
References
- “Writing Multiple-Choice Questions That Demand Critical Thinking,” by Boston University Medical Campus
http://sphweb.bumc.bu.edu/otlt/teachingLibrary/Assessment/WritingMultiple.pdf - Is This a Trick Question? A Short Guide to Writing Effective Test Questions, by Ben Clay, Kansas Curriculum Center
http://www.k-state.edu/ksde/alp/resources/Handout-Module6.pdf - “Writing Good Multiple-Choice Test Questions,” by Cynthia J. Brame, Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching
http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/writing-good-multiple-choice-test-questions/ - “How to Write Better Tests: A Handbook for Improving Test Construction Skills,” by Cloud County Community College
https://www.cloud.edu/Assets/pdfs/assessment/inst.strategy_how%20to%20write%20test%20questions.pdf
