For journal-based self-study courses, authors are typically asked to submit five questions along with their manuscript.
The best exam questions are clear and direct with only one correct answer. They test the participant’s understanding of the material rather than trying to “trick” exam-takers.
Along with your questions and the correct answers, please provide us with the rationale for the correct answer to each question. This is for our reference as well as to provide to test-takers who have passed the test and request it.
Multiple choice questions consist of two parts: the stem and the answer choices. Following are guidelines for each part.
STEMS
1. Avoid fill-in blanks in the stem.
Avoid: ________________ is the optical artifact that limits the test-retest
reliability of stroboscopic readings.
Use: The optical artifact that limits the test-retest reliability of stroboscopic
readings is:
2. Avoid negative stems, or stems that ask the reader to pick out an exception (in other words, "NOT" or "EXCEPT" questions).
Avoid: The whole language intervention approach does NOT emphasize:
Use: The whole language intervention approach emphasizes:
Why? Learners often overlook the crucial “not” even when it’s emphasized with capital letters or boldface type
Answer Choices
1. ASHA self-study test questions can have only ONE correct answer.
2. Provide four answer choices, labeled A., B., C., and D.
Three answer choices should be false but plausible “foils.”
3. Avoid "all of the above" and "none of the above" as answer choices.
Take time to think of plausible but incorrect foils.
4. Avoid whimsical or jokey foils.
Avoid:The “father of modern stuttering treatment” is:
a. George Bush
b. Elvis Presley
c. Fred Spahr
d. Charles Van Riper
5. Avoid "combination" answer choices.
Avoid: Analysis of Emily’s social behavior in classroom contexts suggests that
her peer interactions:
a. reflected her strategic adaptation to her communicative limitations
b. were always inappropriate
c. demonstrated her difficulties in social cognition
d. both a and c
Intended correct answer: D. But a legitimate argument can be made that A, C, and D are all true and therefore would be valid answers.
6. Avoid true/false questions.
There should be four answer choices for every question.
