Creating Exams

How can you design fair, yet challenging, exams that accurately gauge student learning? Here are
some general guidelines. There are also many resources, in print and on the web, that offer strategies
for designing particular kinds of exams, such as multiple-choice.

Choose appropriate item types for your objectives.

Should you assign essay questions on your exams? Problem sets? Multiple-choice questions? It
depends on your learning objectives. For example, if you want students to articulate or justify an
economic argument, then multiple-choice questions are a poor choice because they do not require
students to articulate anything. However, multiple-choice questions (if well-constructed) might
effectively assess students’ ability to recognize a logical economic argument or to distinguish it from
an illogical one. If your goal is for students to match technical terms to their definitions, essay
questions may not be as efficient a means of assessment as a simple matching task. There is no single
best type of exam question: the important thing is that the questions reflect your learning objectives.

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 students 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 students know exactly what you want them to do. Be more explicit about your
expectations than you may think is necessary. Otherwise, students may make assumptions that run
them into trouble. For example, they may assume – perhaps based on experiences in another course
– that an in-class exam is open book or that they can collaborate with classmates on a take-home
exam, which you may not allow. Preferably, you should articulate these expectations to students
before they take the exam as well as in the exam instructions. You also might want to explain in your
instructions how fully you want students to answer questions (for example, to specify if you want
answers to be written in paragraphs or bullet points or if you want students to show all steps in
problem-solving.)

Write instructions that preview the exam.

Students’ test-taking skills may not be very effective, leading them to use their time poorly during an
exam. Instructions can prepare students for 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 students
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 students, 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 students to complete the exam.
When students 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 students perform 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 students to complete is to take it yourself and allow
students 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 students, so ask
yourself: How many subskills are involved? Have students answered questions like this before, or will
this be new to them? Are there common traps or misconceptions that students may 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 students’ work.

When assigning point values, it is useful to think ahead to how you will score students’ answers. Will
you give partial credit if a student 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 a student 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.

Creating objective test questions

Creating objective test questions – such as multiple-choice questions – can be difficult, but here are
some general rules to remember that complement the strategies in the previous section.
 Write objective test questions so that there is one and only one best answer.
 Word questions clearly and simply, avoiding double negatives, idiomatic language, and absolutes such
as “never” or “always.”
 Test only a single idea in each item.
 Make sure wrong answers (distractors) are plausible.
 Incorporate common student errors as distractors.
 Make sure the position of the correct answer (e.g., A, B, C, D) varies randomly from item to item.
 Include from three to five options for each item.
 Make sure the length of response items is roughly the same for each question.
 Keep the length of response items short.
 Make sure there are no grammatical clues to the correct answer (e.g., the use of “a” or “an” can tip
the test-taker off to an answer beginning with a vowel or consonant).
 Format the exam so that response options are indented and in column form.
 In multiple choice questions, use positive phrasing in the stem, avoiding words like “not” and “except.”
If this is unavoidable, highlight the negative words (e.g., “Which of the following is NOT an example
of…?”).
 Avoid overlapping alternatives.
 Avoid using “All of the above” and “None of the above” in responses. (In the case of “All of the above,”
students only need to know that two of the options are correct to answer the question. Conversely,
students only need to eliminate one response to eliminate “All of the above” as an answer. Similarly,
when “None of the above” is used as the correct answer choice, it tests students’ ability to detect
incorrect answers, but not whether they know the correct answer.)
 We generally think of exams as a way to test students’
comprehension of material taught in class. Exams can, however, serve more than one
purpose, and being aware of why we are testing students and what exactly we want to
test can help make students’ experience of exams – as well as our own – a more useful
one. The following tips will gear you towards issues you should think about during the
entire exam process – from planning to reflection. Remember that some exams can be
conducted effectively in a secure online environment in a proctored computer lab or
assigned as paper based or online “take home” exams.

Before you start preparing an exam

Why are you giving an exam to your students?

 To evaluate and grade students. Exams provide a controlled environment for

independent work and so are often used to verify the state of students’ learning.
 To motivate students to study. Students do tend to open their books more often
when an evaluation is coming up. Exams can be great motivators.
 To add variety to student learning. Exams are a form of learning activity. They can
enable students to see the material from a different perspective. They also provide
feedback that students can then use to improve their understanding.
 To identify faults and correct them. Exams enable both students and instructors to
identify which areas of the material taught are not being understood properly. This
allows students to seek help, and instructors to address areas that may need more
attention, thus enabling student progression and improvement.
 To facilitate students’ choices. Certain options sometimes demand that students
obtain high results in specific courses (for example, one may need high grades in math to
enter an engineering program). The pre-requisites often indicate that the particular
option will build on the knowledge obtained in the course. High / poor grades will
indicate whether a student should pursue an option or not.
 To obtain feedback. You can use exams to evaluate your own teaching. Students’
performance on the exam will pinpoint areas where you should spend more time or
change your current approach.
  To provide statistics for the course or institution. Institutions often want
information on how students are doing. How many are passing and failing, and what is
the average achievement in class? Exams can provide this information.
 To accredit qualified students. Certain professions demand that students
demonstrate the acquisition of certain skills or knowledge. An exam can provide such
proof – for example, the Uniform Final Examination (UFE) serves this purpose in
accounting.

What do you want to assess?

This should be related to your learning outcomes for the course.

 Knowledge or how it is used. You can either directly test knowledge or you can gear
exam questions to test students’ application of material taught in class.
 Process or product. You can test students’ reasoning skills and evaluate the process
by focusing the marks and other feedback on the process they follow to arrive at a
solution. Alternatively, you can evaluate the end product.
 The communication of ideas. You can evaluate students’ communication skills their
ability to express themselves - whether this is by writing a cogent argument, or creating
an elegant mathematical proof.
 Convergent thinking or divergent thinking. You can test your students’ ability to
draw a single conclusion from different inputs (convergent thinking). Or you may
alternatively want them to come up with different possible answers (divergent thinking).
Do you expect different answers from students, or do you expect all of them to provide
the same answer?
 Absolute or relative standards. Is student success defined by learning a set amount
of material or demonstrating certain skills, or is student success measured by assessing
the amount of progress the students make over the duration of the course?

How do you decide what to test and how to test it?

The overall exam should be consistent with your learning outcomes for the course.
There are a number of ways to review and prioritize the skills and concepts taught in a
course. You could:

 Use the topics list provided in your course outline

 Skim through your lecture notes to find key concepts and methods
 Review chapter headings and subheadings in the assigned readings.
What are the qualities of a good / fair exam?

 A good exam gives all students an equal opportunity to fully demonstrate

their learning. With this in mind, you might reflect on the nature and parameters of
your exam. For example, could the exam be administered as a take-home exam? Two
students might know the material equally well, but one of them might not perform well
under the pressure of a timed or in-class testing situation. In such a case, what is it that
you really want to assess: how well each student knows the material, or how well each
performs under pressure? Likewise, it might be appropriate to allow students to bring
memory aids to an exam. Again, what is it that you really want to assess: their ability to
memorize a formula or their ability to use and apply a formula?
 Consistency. If you gave the same exam twice to the same students, they should get a
similar grade each time.
 Validity. Make sure your questions address what you want to evaluate.
 Realistic expectations. Your exam should contain questions that match the average
student’s ability level. It should also be possible to respond to all questions in the time
allowed. To check the exam, ask a teaching assistant to take the test – if they can’t
completed it in well under the time permitted then the exam needs to be revised.
 Uses multiple question types. Different students are better at different types of
questions. In order to allow all students to demonstrate their abilities, exams should
include a variety of types of questions (See the tips sheet “Asking Questions: 6 Types”).
 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 students to list
five of the seven benefits of multiple-choice questions.
 Free of bias. Your students will differ in many ways including language proficiency,
socio-economic background, physical disabilities, etc. When constructing an exam, you
should keep student differences in mind to watch for ways that the exams could create
obstacles for some students. For example, the use of colloquial language could create
difficulties for students for whom English is a first language, and examples easily
understood by North American students may be inaccessible to international students.
 Redeemable. An exam should not be the sole opportunity to obtain marks. There
should be other opportunities as well. Assignments and midterms allow students to
practice answering your types of questions and adapt to your expectations.
 Demanding. An exam that is too easy does not accurately measure students’
understanding of the material.
 Transparent marking criteria. Students should know what is expected of them.
They should be able to identify the characteristics of a satisfactory answer and
understand the relative importance of those characteristics. This can be achieved in
 many ways; you can provide feedback on assignments, describe your expectations in
class, or post model solutions on a course website.
 Timely. Spread exams out over the semester. Giving two exams one week apart doesn’t
give students adequate time to receive and respond to the feedback provided by the first
exam. When possible, plan the exams to fit logically within the flow of the course
material. It might be helpful to place tests at the end of important learning units rather
than simply give a midterm halfway through the semester.
 Accessible. For students with disabilities, exams must be amenable to adaptive
technologies such as screen-readers or screen magnifiers. Exams that have visual content
-- such as charts, maps, and illustrations -- may need to be rendered by
Waterloo's AccessAbility Services into a format that works for a given student.