How to Make a True or False Test in Simple Steps

A true or false question is a straightforward question type that can be used to assess the fundamental knowledge of your students. However, despite how easy it seems, it can be challenging. Making a question exact while remaining obscure to test-takers is difficult.  

This blog offers a comprehensive tutorial on how to make a quiz as well as some advice on how to utilize true/false questions successfully. But first, for those who might have forgotten, let us remind you what a true or false quiz includes.

What is a True or False Quiz?

A true or false quiz is a type of quiz where a user has to agree or disagree on some fact or statement. So, a person needs to choose only between two options: “True” or “False.”

Examples of a True or False Quiz

You can leverage True/False questions for completely different quiz topics. Here are just a few examples:

• In a history quiz, you can use true/false questions to test if your students have a sufficient knowledge of historical events.  
• With true/false questions in an astronomy quiz, you can check if your learners are good at facts about astronomy.
• In an English grammar quiz, you can ask your students to agree or disagree with the statement to see how well they know grammar rules.

Tips on How to Make the “Right” True or False Quiz

1. When creating a quiz, keep in mind that your true/false question must be fact-based, rather than opinion-oriented.

Let’s compare two questions:

• George Washington is the only president to have a state named after him.
• The best way to make a customer stay loyal to your brand is to sell a good product or provide the best services on the market.

Do you think a true/false question will be effective in both situations?  

Hint: The first statement is good as a test-taker must know whether it is entirely true or absolutely wrong. The second statement isn’t the best fit for the true or false question format as it is more like somebody’s opinion, not a fact.

2. Avoid qualifiers that give hints about the answer.

“Sometimes”, “many”, “always”, “never”, and ”every” are examples of qualifiers that may allow a test-taker to guess the right answer. To be more exact, “sometimes”, “often”, “many”, “few”, “generally”, and “usually” are more likely to reflect a true sentence, whereas “all,” “never,” and “always” give hints about the answer that is typically false.

3. Don’t use negative sentences.

Adding the word “not” to a true sentence, and especially using double negatives, is not the best way to make a true/false question. Such statements can easily confuse learners who know the subject matter.

Let’s look at the example:

• Wolves are not farm animals.
• Wolves are wild animals.

Both sentences have the same meaning, but the second one is in the positive form and therefore doesn’t create any confusion about which option to choose for those who know the answer. So, if you have negative sentences, try to turn them into positives.  

4. Avoid complicated sentences.

Make your statements clear and concise. There’s no reason to use an abundance of words to make a sentence more challenging.  

Just compare:

• A learning management system is a software application for delivering educational courses, training programs, or learning and development programs and assessing employees or students online.
• A learning management system is a software program for teaching and assessing employees or students online.

It’s obvious that the second question is the least confusing.

Although test-takers have a 50/50 chance of guessing the right answer, a well-worded true or false question can be an effective assessment tool. However, for better results, mix them up with multiple-choice, matching, and other kinds of questions.  

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