Quality assurance of multiple-choice tests

Purpose
– To provide educationalists with an understanding of the key quality issues relating to multiple‐choice tests, and a set of guidelines for the quality assurance of such tests.

Design/methodology/approach
– The discussion of quality issues is structured to reflect the order in which those issues naturally arise. It covers the design of individual multiple‐choice questions, issues relating to the question bank as a whole, choice of test format, and what can be learned through post‐test analysis. The paper offers practical advice, with an emphasis on maximising test reliability.

Findings
– It is recognised that considerable expertise and effort is required to undertake a thorough post‐test statistical analysis, but pre‐test quality assurance is relatively straightforward, if labour‐intensive. The question of which is best amongst the various alternative test formats is left open.

Originality/value
– The general issue of quality assurance of multiple‐choice tests is surely an important one, yet the author is not aware of any other publication that deals directly with this topic.