Written Report

in Measurement
and
Evaluation

Multiple-Choice Test Item:

Group-Term Variety

Allan C. Abad
BSEDEN 4-2
Multiple-Choice Test Item: Group-Term Variety

 Group-term variety

Group-term is the set of terminologies that are grouped according to their

specific use, nature or background and class that they belong.

Group-term variety consists of group of words or terms in which one

does not belong to the group.

In this variety of Multiple-Choice Test Item, only one option is not to the

group of words and the remaining options are belong to their corresponding

nature.

Anatomy of Group-term Variety test

 Stem or Lead-in Question

The stem states a complete problem in the form of a question. Group-term

variety questions generally include the phrase “which of the following does not

the group” to direct the candidate to the consideration of the listed options, not to

the consideration of the universe of possible answers.

 Keyed response

This is the correct response to the question “which of the following does not

the group?”

 Options or Distractors

The purpose of the options or distractors is to appear as plausible solutions to

the question. These are the alternative incorrect options to the question. These

are the incorrect alternatives whose job it is to distract the test taker into thinking

that the incorrect alternative is correct, but not to be so distracting that if the test

taker knows the correct answer, he or she cannot identify it.

 EXAMPLE:

Which of the following Stem

does not belong to the
group?

a. America Keyed response

b. Korea

c. Japan
Options /Distractors
d. Thailand

e. Philippines

Guidelines in writing Group-term variety test.

 Writing the stem

1. Ensure that the direction or question in the stem is very clear.

2. Begin stems with the phrase or question, “Which of the following does

not belong to the group?”

3. Be satisfied with three or four(based on the number item ) well-

constructed options.

 Writing the choices

1. Make sure that only one of these choices is the right answer or keyed

response.

2. Avoid using All-of-the-above in the choices

3. Keep the length of choices approximately equal.

4. After the options are written, vary the location of the answer on as

random a basis as possible.

5. Make sure that the distractors are related to each other or they are in

the same category or use.

Sample test items:

Direction: each item below consist of five words numbered 1to 5. Choose the

word which does not belong to the grouped. Underline the word as your anwer.
 1. a. Philippines

b. Japan

c. America

d. Korea

e. Thailand

2. a. internal-consistency

b. concurrent

c. test-retest

d. split half

e. parallel forms

3. a. standard deviation

b. variance

c. mean deviation

d. mean

e. range

4. a. quartile

b. median

c. quartile median

d. variance

e. analysis of variance

In item number 1, the correct answer in America, which is lettered C. this

is the only country in the group that does not belong to Asia.

In item number 2, concurrent is the correct answer because the rest of the

options are all methods of testing the reliability of the test, whereas concurrent is

type of validity. Thus, the only word does not belong to the group.

In item number 3, the correct answer is mean which is lettered D. Mean is

the only descriptive statistics in the group that does not belong to measures of

variability.
 In item number 4, analysis of variance is the correct answer which is

lettered E because this is the only inferential statistics in the group and the rest of

the options are all descriptive statistics.

References:

Burton, Steven J., Sudweeks, Richard R., Merrill, Paul F., and Wood, Bud.,1991.

How to Prepare Better Multiple Choice Test Items: Guidelines for University

Faculty, https://testing-beta.byu.edu/handbooks/betteritems.pdf

Marie Tarrant, James Ware.Impact of itemwriting flaws in multiple choice

questions on student achievement in highstakes nursing assessments. Medical

Education. 2008, 42, pp. 198–206.

http://www.tpcb.org/ptoe/TechnicalGuidelines.pdf

Kehoe, J. (1995-10-00). Writing Multiple-Choice Test Items. ERIC Clearinghouse

on Assessment and Evaluation Washington DC, 1-5.

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED398236.pdf