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Teaching@UW

Constructing tests

Whether you use low-stakes practice quizzes or higher-stakes exams, careful design can help your tests promote students’ learning.

On this page, you can explore strategies for:

Designing tests and quizzes

There are a few core strategies for creating effective tests and quizzes, regardless of the type of test or quiz:

  • Align your test/quiz with your learning outcomes. For example, if your course goals focus primarily on building students’ synthesis skills, make sure your test or quiz asks students to demonstrate their ability to connect concepts.
  • Create questions that provide insight into a student’s level of competency. For example, if you want students to understand a 4-step process, develop questions that show you which of the steps they grasp and which they need more help understanding.
  • Develop questions that map to what you have explored in class. If you are using publisher-provided question banks or assessment tools, select only questions that align with your lectures, assigned readings, and assignments.
  • Incorporate Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles. Use a variety of types of questions (e.g., multiple choice, written, diagram-based) to allow students multiple ways of demonstrating understanding.

Creating effective multiple choice questions

Most instructors are familiar with multiple-choice questions that ask students to recall information, but sometimes struggle to create questions that require higher-order thinking. Here are some strategies for writing effective multiple choice questions:

  • Design questions that ask students to evaluate information (e.g., use an example, case study, or real-world dataset).
  • Avoid writing “gotcha” questions – the goal is not to confuse students, but to assess their learning and progress toward your learning outcomes.
  • Make sure the answer options are consistent in length and detail. If the correct answer is noticeably different, students may end up choosing the right answer for the wrong reasons.

Creating effective essay and short answer questions

Essay and short answer questions offer instructors insight into students’ ability to reason, synthesize, and evaluate information. Here are some strategies for writing effective essay questions:

  • Signal the type of thinking you expect students to demonstrate. Use specific words and phrases (e.g., identify, compare, critique) that guide students to how to go about responding to the question.
  • Write questions that can be reasonably answered in the time allotted. Consider offering students guideposts on how much effort they should give to a question (e.g., “Write no more than 2 short paragraphs” or “Each short answer question is worth 20 points/10% of the test”).
  • Share your grading criteria before the test or quiz. Understanding how they will be graded will help students effectively prepare.

Strategies for grading essay and short answer questions

Although essay and short answer questions are more labor-intensive to grade than multiple-choice questions, the pay-off is often greater – they provide more insight into students’ critical thinking skills. Here are some strategies to help streamline the essay/short answer grading process:

  • Develop a rubric to keep you focused on your core criteria for success. Identify the point value/percentage associated with each criterion to streamline scoring.
  • Grade all student responses to the same question before moving to the next question. For example, if your test has two essay questions, grade all essay #1 responses first. Then grade all essay #2 responses. This promotes grading equity and may provide a more holistic view of how the class as a whole answered each question.
  • Focus on assessing students’ ideas and arguments. Few people write beautifully in a timed test. Unless it is key to your learning outcomes, don’t grade on grammar or polish.

Helping students succeed

Many students understandably experience stress, anxiety, and apprehension about taking tests and that can affect their performance. Here are some strategies for reducing stress in testing environments:

  • Help students understand the purpose of your exams/quizzes by sharing your course learning outcomes in your syllabus and on the first day of class. Be sure to discuss how your exams/quizzes help students work toward those outcomes.
  • Incorporate metacognitive learning activities into your course to help students better prepare for exams. Give students low-stakes opportunities to practice the kind of thinking you will be assessing in the test by providing study questions or practice tests. Share examples of successful answers and provide explanations of why those answers were successful.
  • Co-create test questions with your students. Ask students (individually or in small groups) to develop and answer potential test questions. Consider using these in the actual test.
  • Choose relevant questions. Develop questions that assess skills and knowledge students encountered in lecture, discussion, or homework.

Promoting academic integrity

While no strategy is a guarantee, here are some practices that can discourage students from cheating on tests:

  • Avoid high-stakes tests. If students worry that a disastrous exam performance will make it impossible to succeed in the course, they are more likely to cheat. Opt for assessments that provide students opportunities to grow and rebound from missteps (e.g., more low- or no-stakes assignments).
  • Include a certification question. Ask students to acknowledge their academic integrity responsibilities at the beginning of a quiz/exam with a question like this one: “The work I submit on this exam is my own. I will not consult with, discuss the contents of this quiz/test with, or show the quiz/test to anyone else, including other students. I understand that doing so is a violation of UW’s academic integrity policy and may subject me to disciplinary action, including suspension and dismissal.”
  • Use question banks and randomize questions when building your quiz or test. Explore how to create question banks, randomize questions from your question bank, and shuffle the answer order in Canvas.
  • Offer collaborative exams and quizzes. Working together to answer questions can help students engage more deeply with course content and develop valuable collaboration skills.
  • Prompt students to apply their learning through questions built around discrete scenarios, real-world problems, or unique datasets.
  • Require students to explain their answers to multiple-choice questions in a follow-up short answer question. Instructors need not spend much time grading follow-up questions; just spot check them to get a sense of whether learners are thinking for themselves.
  • Ask students to make connections in their answers. Prompting students to include specific ideas from assigned readings or class discussions in short answer questions can discourage students from copy/pasting answers from AI or the internet.

Visit “Creating a culture of academic integrity” for more information.

Refining tests and quizzes

Observation and iteration are key parts of a reflective teaching practice. Take time after you’ve graded a test or quiz to examine its effectiveness and identify ways to improve it. Start by asking some basic questions:

  • Did the test/quiz assess what you wanted it to assess? Based on students’ performance on your questions, are you confident that students grasp the concepts and skills you designed the test/quiz to measure?
  • Did the test align with your course goals and learning objectives? Does students’ performance indicate that they have made progress toward your learning goals?
  • Were there particular questions that many students missed? If so, consider revising the wording of the question and explore whether the question asked students about something you didn’t discuss (or didn’t discuss enough) in class.
  • Were students able to finish the test or quiz in the time allotted? If not, reconsider the number and difficulty of your questions.