The following recommendations are a minimum subset analysed. They are used to ensure a minimum checklist.
Recommendations for Stems
- The stem could be answered without reading the distractors.
- Prefer to form the stem as a question ended with “?” rather than a sentence ended with “:”
- Limit the use of negative stems.
- Certain key words in the stem should always appear in upper case, e.g., NO, NOT, CANNOT, MUST, BEST, LEAST, MINIMUM, MAXIMUM, TRUE, FALSE, MOST, UNLIKELY. These upper-case words should not appear in the distractors.
- Use a maximum of one word in upper case in each stem.
- No double negatives in a stem.
- All customer names to appear in a consistent and agreed format.
- All stems to include abbreviations in a consistent agreed format.
- Do not use “you”, e.g. ... what would you do?
Recommendations for distractors
- "All of the above" and "None of the above" are NOT to be used in distractors.
- NO upper-case words (NOT, NO, etc) should appear in a distractor.
- Avoid duplication of the first words for all distractors. Move them in the stem.
- Avoid expressions like ALWAYS, NEVER, ONLY, MUST, etc... in the distractors.
- Be consistent in the string length of the distractors.
- All figures after the decimal point to be removed when they are all zeros.
