Creating Proper Exams

How can you create tests that fairly measure student learning while also being challenging? Here are some broad principles. Additionally, there are a ton of printed and online resources that provide guidelines for creating specific types of exams, like multiple-choice ones.

Pick item types that are suited for your goals.

Should you include essays in your exams? sets of issues? questions with multiple options? Depending on your learning goals. For instance, multiple-choice questions are a terrible choice if you want examinees to explain or justify an economic argument because they don't compel them to do so. However, well-crafted multiple-choice questions may be able to measure examinees' understanding of how to recognize a logical economic argument or to tell it apart from an illogical one. Essay questions might not be the most effective form of evaluation if you want examinees to match technical phrases to their definitions. A straightforward matching exercise would be better. There is no one optimum form of exam question; what matters is that they accurately reflect your knowledge.

Highlight how the exam aligns with course objectives.

Identify which course objectives the exam addresses (e.g., “This exam assesses your ability to use sociological terminology appropriately, and to apply the principles we have learned in the course to date”). This helps examinees see how the components of the course align, reassures them about their ability to perform well (assuming they have done the required work), and activates relevant experiences and knowledge from earlier in the course.

Write instructions that are clear, explicit, and unambiguous.

Make sure that examinees know exactly what you want them to do. Be more explicit about your expectations than you may think is necessary. Otherwise, examinees may make assumptions that run them into trouble. You also might want to explain in your instructions how fully you want examinees to answer questions (for example, to specify if you want answers to be written in paragraphs or bullet points or if you want examinees to show all steps in problem-solving.)

Write instructions that preview the exam.

Examinees’ test-taking skills may not be very effective, leading them to use their time poorly during an exam. Instructions can prepare examineesfor what they are about to be asked by previewing the format of the exam, including question type and point value (e.g., there will be 10 multiple-choice questions, each worth two points, and two essay questions, each worth 15 points). This helps examinees use their time more effectively during the exam.

Word questions clearly and simply.

Avoid complex and convoluted sentence constructions, double negatives, and idiomatic language that may be difficult for students, especially international examinees, to understand. Also, in multiple-choice questions, avoid using absolutes such as “never” or “always,” which can lead to confusion.

Enlist a colleague or TA to read through your exam.

Sometimes instructions or questions that seem perfectly clear to you are not as clear as you believe. Thus, it can be a good idea to ask a colleague or TA to read through (or even take) your exam to make sure everything is clear and unambiguous.

Think about how long it will take examinees to complete the exam.

When examinees are under time pressure, they may make mistakes that have nothing to do with the extent of their learning. Thus, unless your goal is to assess how examineesperform under time pressure, it is important to design exams that can be reasonably completed in the time allotted. One way to determine how long an exam will take examinees to complete is to take it yourself and allow examinees triple the time it took you – or reduce the length or difficulty of the exam.

Consider the point value of different question types.

The point value you ascribe to different questions should be in line with their difficulty, as well as the length of time they are likely to take and the importance of the skills they assess. It is not always easy when you are an expert in the field to determine how difficult a question will be for examinees, so ask yourself: How many subskills are involved? Have examinees answered questions like this before, or will this be new to them? Are there common traps or misconceptions that examineesmay fall into when answering this question? Needless to say, difficult and complex question types should be assigned higher point values than easier, simpler question types. Similarly, questions that assess pivotal knowledge and skills should be given higher point values than questions that assess less critical knowledge.

Think ahead to how you will score examinees’ work.

When assigning point values, it is useful to think ahead to how you will score examinees answers. Will you give partial credit if an examinee gets some elements of an answer right? If so, you might want to break the desired answer into components and decide how many points you would give an examinee for correctly answering each. Thinking this through in advance can make it considerably easier to assign partial credit when you do the actual grading. For example, if a short answer question involves four discrete components, assigning a point value that is divisible by four makes grading easier.

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