Write multiple-choice questions

A good multiple-choice item can test reasoning, not just recall, and tells the teacher why a student got it wrong, but only if each wrong option is a mistake real students make. Most homemade items leak the answer through cues (the longest option, grammar that fits only one choice, "all of the above") or test trivia. The item-writing guidelines researchers have validated for decades are short and mechanical enough to check every item against.

Write 10 multiple-choice questions on this materialOnly if [LEVEL] is given: for [LEVEL].

Only if [LEARNING_OBJECTIVES] is given:

1. Blueprint. Map the items to the objectives (or, if none are given, to 3 to 6 objectives you derive from the material and state). Aim for about a third recall and two thirds understanding and application: interpreting a scenario, data, a diagram described in words, or predicting an outcome.
2. Write each item:

• A stem that poses a complete question, answerable before reading the options. Put shared wording in the stem, not repeated in options.
• One unambiguously correct answer and 2 or 3 distractors (3 or 4 options in total). Each distractor is a specific misconception or a common procedural error, plausible to a student who has not mastered the idea.
• Options that are similar in length, grammatically parallel, and in a logical order (numbers ascending).
• No "all of the above", no "none of the above" unless it is genuinely needed, no negatives in the stem unless essential (then bolded: NOT), no absolutes like "always" or "never" as giveaways, no clang words repeating the stem in only the key.

1. Rationale. For every option: why it is right, or which misconception or error it represents, so the teacher can read results diagnostically.
2. Check the set. Verify each key is correct and each distractor is genuinely wrong. Spread the correct answers evenly across letter positions. Make sure no item gives away the answer to another.

• Items must be answerable from the material and the level; do not test facts outside it.
• If the material is too short to support 10 distinct items without trivial or near-duplicate questions, write fewer and say why.
• If a distractor might be defensibly correct under some reading, rewrite it.
• Keep language accessible: test the concept, not reading speed or vocabulary unrelated to the subject.

Blueprint

A table: Objective | Items | Cognitive level.

Questions

Numbered items with options A to D (or A to C), no answers marked, so the section can be copied straight into a quiz.

Answer key and rationales

A table per item: Option | Correct? | Rationale or misconception.

Item checks

A short table: Item | Objective | Key position | Checks passed (stem complete, cues removed, distractors plausible), and the key distribution across positions.