I recently came across an excellent blog post by Tom Kuhlman and wanted to share it with you.

5 Common Quiz Question Mistakes (And How to Avoid Them)

We are all guilty of making at least 1 of these mistakes when we create test questions - but information is power and we can start changing our habits today!

1. The questions are either too easy or downright stupid.

We’ve all seen them.  You take a quiz and there’s one good answer choice and all of the rest are obviously not right (or plain silly).  It’s like the course designer just went through the motions.  This type of quiz question does nothing to measure the learner.  What’s the point of the quiz?  Why’s it even there?  Put some thought into the quiz and make it meaningful.

2. The questions are set up as "gotcha" questions. 

I worked on a project once where the customer gave me a list of questions and half of them were trick questions.  His rationale for the trick questions was that if the learner really understood the content, theyʼd pick up on the nuances of the questions.  Thatʼs nonsense!

3. Questions ask about content that’s not covered in the course. 

Sometimes there’s a tendency to pack more teaching into the question.  We figure that we only have access to the learner for a short period of time, why not just add more content as we ask a question.

4. The questions are way too wordy and make it difficult to understand. 

This is a common issue with policy training or courses that deal with regulations.  Questions that could be simple look like they were written for someone taking a bar exam.

5. The learner doesn’t know what to do to answer the question.

This issue is less to do with the question and more about providing enough direction to the learner.  Think about what you put on the screen and the directions you give the users. 

Click here to read Tom's entire blog:

http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/5-common-quiz-question-mistakes-and-how-to-avoid-them/