A checklist to help you write better exams
Exam questions need to be valid, reliable, well phrased, well weighted, and markable. The following checklist is a summary of the suggestions presented in a series of posts (I, II, III) dedicated to writing exam questions for software developers.
Software Development Exam Question Writing Checklist
- Fitness for Purpose
- FFP1: Test Application, not Recall
- FFP2: Tie Each Question to Learning Point(s)
- FFP3: Tie Each Question to Lab that Exercises Learning Point(s)
- FFP4: Fair Distribution, not Bell Curve
- FFP5: Reliable Questions Widen the Spread of Marks
- FFP6: Be Ready to Accept New Answers
- FFP7: No Trick Questions
- FFP8: Review with Fresh and Contrary Eyes
- FFP9: Focus on Relevant Information
- FFP10: All of the Above, None of the Above, Neither of Those
- FFP11: Use Current Code
- FFP12: Use a Die if Writing Multiple Choice Questions
- FFP13: No Hint-Laden Review Sessions
- FFP14: Provide Past Papers
- Phrasing
- Weighting
- Marking
- M1: A Marking Scheme is Just a Guide
- M2: Allow Half-marks, but Don’t Require Them
- M3: Consider the Marker
- M4: Each Paper is Individual
- M5: Mark Each Question in a Random Order Across Papers
- M6: Be Forgiving of Non-Technical English
- M7: No Arbitrarily Specific Marks
- M8: Reasonable Marking Schemes can be Shown to Takers