All examinees have an equal chance to demonstrate their understanding on a good exam. This can entail using testing procedures like open-book exams or take-home tests so that examinees who struggle with test anxiety can demonstrate their capacity to study rather than their capacity to perform well under pressure.
Consistency. Examinees should achieve similar if the exam were taken again.
Validity. Your questions need to relate to your course content and your learning goals.
Realistic expectations. Not all examinees have the ability to answer the hardest questions all the time. Your exams should have a variety of questions that test multiple skill levels.
Time. Your examinees should have plenty of time to complete the exam.
Uses multiple question types. Different examinees are better at different types of questions. In order to allow all examinees to demonstrate their abilities, exams should include a variety of question types so that examinees have multiple ways to achieve marks.
Offer multiple ways to obtain full marks. Exams can be highly stressful and artificial ways to demonstrate knowledge. In recognition of this, you may want to provide questions that allow multiple ways to obtain full marks. For example, ask examinees to list five of the seven benefits of multiple-choice questions.
Free of bias. Don't assume your examinees understand or have viewed the same pop culture, or have been exposed to the same slang as you. Use language that is free from bias and easy to understand by all students.
Demanding. Challenge your examinees with authentic questions that test their skill, but do not make the test too easy.
Easy to understand marking criteria. Have your examinees received feedback from you on assignments, class discussion, etc., so they know what to expect on the exam? Have you clearly stated to examinees what is expected of them on the exam?
Accessible. For examinees with physical or learning disabilities, exams must be amenable to adaptive technologies such as screen readers or screen magnifiers. If you do need to make accommodations for a student in your class, you can do so by contacting the Accommodated Learning Centre here at the UofL.
Provide progressive structure. Your exam should open with some easier questions and progressively get more challenging. There are two reasons for this. It allows examinees to answer a variety of question types, and also allows them to use the exam to build confidence as they move to more challenging questions.
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