Getting Started

General guidelines for drafting items

Choosing the item type

The Editing module includes six types of items with specific characteristics:

  1. Associations
  2. Multiple choice
  3. Sequencing
  4. Multiple answers
  5. Cloze text with drag-and-drop
  6. Cloze text with menus

The Multiple choice type is most commonly used; all other types, with the exception of the Sequencing type, are variants of the Multiple choice item.

Basic principles

  • Choose the item type according to the item's target level; for example, in beginner levels (1-2-3-4), create items that provide for the use of images.
  • Choose the item type according to the content provided; for example, use the Sequencing type to classify the steps of a procedure or to place events in chronological order.

Rules for writing instructions and questions

  • The instructions must be clear; they contain all of the required information and are not ambiguous:

    ✓ Place the events in chronological order.
    ✗ Place the following in order.

  • The instructions use simple, commonly understood terms with no extraneous words.
  • The instructions relate to a single task.
  • The instructions can be easily understood by target level respondents and their formulation doesn’t present difficulties.
  • Tasks are selected according to their usefulness for assessment.
  • The question relates to key content in the text, not anecdotal details.
  • The content of each item is unique and doesn’t compete with that of another item.

Rules for writing answers

  • All answer choices must explicitly relate to the question:

    Where can spectators purchase their tickets?
        a) At the gate ✓
        b) At the box office ✓
        c) When they pay ✗
        d) At the front desk ✓

  • Only one answer is possible among the proposed answer choices.
    NOTE: In this version of the test, the Multiple answers type is not used, in order to limit the complexity of tasks to the level of the Multiple choice item type. Multiple correct responses are possible in Multiple answers items and the respondent must provide all of them for the response to be considered correct. This type of item is more appropriate for advanced students.

  • Answer choices are mutually exclusive.
  • Answer choices possess the same degree of complexity.
  • Answer choices are realistic and plausible in the given context.
  • The use of distractors can increase the degree of difficulty in the case of answer choices that are easy to eliminate.
  • The key elements of the answer choices are formulated so as to test the comprehension, not the memory of the respondent.
  • The answer choices are equivalent in content and grammatical formulation, for example:

    a) He is a merchant. ✓
    b) He is a client. ✓
    c) He is a passenger. ✓
    d) He is an employee’s son. ✗
    e) It's a stray dog. ✗

  • Elliptical constructions (example 1) or those that refer to implicit information (example 2) are to be avoided:

    Example 1: The report is late. ✗ / The employee submitted her report late. ✓
    Example 2: The employee is sick. ✗ / The employee is absent. ✓

To be avoided

  • Questions that are either too specific or too general
  • Questions that require personal opinion
  • Trick questions
  • Negative formulations in questions (when a negative formulation must be used in an answer choice, write the negative elements in capitals)
  • Vague answer choices: None of the above ✗ All of the above ✗
  • Questions containing cultural references