The IR Quiz Editor Instant Recommendations engine performs a series of real time checks while you are creating the questions. It analyses the Stems and the Answer Choices to detect the commom mistakes exam creators do. The list below is a subset of the capabilities of the engine. The engine detects:
- the number of correct choices to append at the end of the stem the key words "(choose n)" where n is the number of correct choices. The key words to insert can be configured.
- words such as 'never' and 'always' in your question stem. It makes the question too easy given that most things have exceptions.
- wordy Stems. Student could get lost.
- lengthy Answer Choices. Student could get lost.
- words like 'Is true', 'Is false', 'Never True', 'Always True' because they are often too absolute. Students are experts at arguing for another idea that is outside such absolutes.
- negative questions because they can be confusing, as the learner has to take an extra moment to understand what you’re asking. Moreover, this detection helps you in detecting that you have maybe too many negative questions.
- repeating words in the Answer Choices. Put as much text as possible into the question stem rather than repeating it in each option. This makes the options easier to evaluate.
- questions of the form 'Which of the following statements is correct?' There is no clear question being asked, and the choices are often heterogeneous. Prefer a True/False question.
- answer choices with terms like 'all of the above', 'none of the above', etc... because responses are reshuffled during the quiz. Also, we do not recommend this type of choice because learner will easily find correct answer. Nevertheless you can decide to keep the choice but please use words like 'All listed options' or 'None of the options', etc...
- answer choices where the correct choice is the one that contains the highest number of terms. Since our brains look for patterns and visual cues, this may make the correct answer too obvious.
- specific determiners which would permit a test-wise but unprepared learner to respond correctly. Specific determiners refer to sweeping terms like 'usually', 'always', 'inevitable', 'usually', 'sometimes', etc...
- and more...
