I believe that writing exam questions should be in a way to check whether th Intended Learning Outcomes have been achieved. It is better that questions contain essay questions and multiple chioce as well.

I believe that writing exam questions should be in a way to check whether th Intended Learning Outcomes have been achieved. It is better that questions contain essay questions and multiple chioce as well.

The evaluation method will be closely related to the teaching practices and objectives of the class. There shall be different questions types. Only objective questions. lógic, close, essay will lead students to orientate their studies to the test and not to the goals of the class.

You should ready the all of the questions can be selected as exam questions. Then you select the some questions based on three levels (low, high and intermediate). This way help you for detect the students levels from very good to bad.

Vilemar Magalhaes put his finger on the key to an excellent exam: structure the exam to help fulfill the objectives of the individual course.  This key should also determine form and substance of the exam.  In my own courses on Spanish or Comparative Literature, I habitually included 3 sections: (1.) an identification of main characters studied and a statement of the author's chief concerns insofar as related to those characters; (2.) definitions of main literary terms plus examples from the works studied, and (3.) an essay question comparing and contrasting treatment of a single main theme in various of the works studied.  In all 3 sections, I allow students much choice between questions.That not only gives students some measure of freedom, but also relieves some of the monotony of marking the exams.

Good ideas.  Thanks. 

Overall, the ideas should be to test the analytical ability and knowledge of the students  in the subject as to how far they have grasped the contents of the subject taught. The paper setter must see that as far as possible, most of the syllabus must be covered while deciding the questions.   In case of management students, cases must form the essential part of testing if  possible, which will show whether they are able to demonstrate application skills besides conceptualization.

In a class there are different types of students. So the the examination questions must be such that some questions can be answered by average students; some must have a high difficulty level which can be answered by only those who are very well read and prepared; and some should be easy which can be answered by even weak students.

1. See the contents and objectives of the syllabi

2. Questions must cover the whole contents

3. Questions must be in a way to test the knowledge and analytical power of the students

4. Easy and difficulty level must be balanced

5. Examiner must not impose his/her mastery on the students

I agree with @  all above..

Plus questions should be such that students can think answer and correlate theory with prectical aspect as well..

The best way is the broad way. I see many universities follow a very unproductive exams that include all 10 mark questions...there is no logic to this

In my opinion a writing exam should contain questions that may include elaborate, brief, short, very short and also a part of the question paper may also contain 10-20% multiple choice questions.

I agree with dear @MAhfuz that exam questions should be in a way to check whether th Intended Learning Outcomes have been achieved. It should contain difficult, medium, and easy questions.

Upon revisiting the question again, my earlier response was to answer a Question paper.

whereas to create a Question paper, it depends on the level of the students.

In my opinion, the best way of writing exam questions is to encompass in them what evaluates the expected outcomes. This does not come through one approach but ought to include: multiple choice, fill in the blanks, true/false, match between columns, short essay questions, and account for. These types of questions have to be clear & precise combining easy, ordinary, and few hard problems.

Do not rely on others to typewrite your own exam & my advice is to use small readable letters of the Microsoft winword (e.g. Arial 10) to prevent cheating. Also, at least ,2 exam forms ought to be prepared for the same reason. I know that it is a difficult work for the teacher but it has to be done for the sake of students, the society, and the world at large.

This is what I would do, dear Shafig: start my exam with the easiest questions and move towards the more difficult ones. Target the lower learning levels first. Give the students some feeling about the types of questions I will be asking in terms of structure as well as content. Include the points/marks each question is worth. I write good exam questions!

Well, the questions should be structured in a way so that you can get an overall impression about understanding, analyzing and reasoning power of the students. It should comprise of few core conceptual questions (it demands going through text books or any other resources apart from class lecture), few problem sets/ concepts, which were discussed in the class , and few brainstorming questions which would reflect student's reasoning power and brilliance. The most important part is giving students adequate time to finish the test and make sure you have a fair points/credit distribution.

Dear @Shafiq, I give students the computational assignments, trying to cover every area of the subject! I do prepare it very carefully and solutions are available to the students after the exam!

Dear Shafig,

The following attached files are very helpful.

Thanks for RG. It gives us the opportunity to learn from each other.

Thank you DOCTORS.

Lab exercises have always been very instructive as they guide students through the steps of previous major discoverers. In astronomy, it is a rather classical way of teaching and checking student's progress. There are some available over Internet of course, like http://astrolab.phys.utk.edu/LabExercises.php and http://astronomy.nmsu.edu/geas/oview/labs.shtml just to name two of them.

This approach could also be used in many other disciplines.

Ancient Greek  scientists and philosophers used to do the same, letting the student explore the rediscovery by himself of key knowledge.

My main criteria is that questions cover the main points and the expected learning outcomes of the course.

Distribution of questions generally match more or less the relative emphasis given to different sections of the course.

Other criterion is that the exam questions should have a wide range of difficulty.

Dear Shafig,

I structure the tasks into three parts:

1- in the first part there are the basic questions, subdivided into at least two parts to facilitate the correction and thus ensure fairness to students;

2- in the second there are advanced questions that require more thorough analysis, often by inserting graphics of which an interpretation is sought;

3- in the third part there is a big question in answer to which the student can express his views on general issues concerning the course. Today in the afternoon, for example, the big question was based on whether the subject of the course was outdated or superseded by other. The student had two choices: to say yes or no. In the first case, the student had to explain what were the critical issues and de weaknesses. In the second case, he must indicate the application fields most current and the strong points.

In summary I think the teacher should check both the basic and advanced knowledge as well as the ability to reason and to increase the student's critical sense.

Best regards

Ting Fa Marg

Writing exam questions will be much better if the objectivity of the examination is very clear to the question setter. Keeping this in mind, the question setter must obey the rule of throwing questions in average ----- standard----- difficult style related to the subject matter of that examination.

It depends on the level of studies. At highest level the best way is to ensure that student has understood the crucial components, otherwise we have created a little work. At lower level we have the freedom to choose more options.

In my opinion, an exam should give the opportunity to the professor/teacher to evaluate thoroughly the knowledge that the students have obtained on one specific class or subject (Mathematics, Physics, etc.,).

It is always good to have questions in the exam that obliges the students to think and to test its ability to find solutions to certain type of problems that require deeper knowledge about this specific topic, particularly for University students. In the case of this type of students, I am not in favor to include in the exam questions of “yes or no answers” or questions with different alternatives to select one of them, or problems that for their solution you can use a “mechanical thinking” or following the same patterns that the students used during practical exercises.

There are two ways of evaluation

Syllabus Orientation

• Normal Examination pattern
• Projects the knowledge garnered over the time frame
• Common scale throughout the class

Application Orientation

• Use of learning
• conceptual and / or Practical input of knowledge and/ or Skills
• Real life benefit

Overall aim of assessment is to ascertain the learning of important elements in the course and to test that the student has reached the minimum standard acceptable for the award.

see this link:

http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/edu/taughtcourses/writinggoodexamquestions.pdf

•  Frame exam questions within the context of the course and tell students the intent of each kind of question;
• Let students know what constitutes a satisfactory answer to a question in any given exam section;
• Sequence the level of difficulty in the exam questions from easier to harder in order to reflect the learner's process throughout the course; and
• Provide learners with an opportunity for additional learning experiences.

Today, the demand is for applications and practical oriental of learning that needs to be evaluated on a "real time situations" or "on the job"

We must use mixed method --- using traditional format and critical/practical/real situation based!

Answering to the point answers to each question in simple language but in effective way by following a normal standard pattern.

Dear all,

Good day,

The exam questions should be taking in consideration the total program, and  testing the comprehension of students. Where we can detect the students levels from very good to bad.

Best regards

Exam questions must cover   the expected learning outcomes and and the main points of the course.

The exam questions should also have various  difficulty levels to better distinguish bright students.

The exam questions should not be neither very hard or very easy!

The Common mistake by student's while answering exam questions are

• They are in an unnecessary hurry to answer the questions.
• Always answer the questions after reading through the question paper, understand the expectations and then layout the answers to the stated and implied in the question.

To answer a question is usually either easy or impossíble. When it is difficult is because the teacher is  not willing to know what his students have learned but how they are ready to solve riddles which is surely a poor question.

This is what it all comes down to; you’re sitting in the exam hall, waiting to get your hands on that anticipated piece of paper. You’ve jammed a ton of information into your brain and your fingernails are non-existent – it’s time to get down to business!

Yes the exam environment may be different across disciplines. Computing students will sit some tests in front of a computer with their fingers poised to code. A practical element will contribute to science student’s final grade. It doesn’t matter if you’re studying English, Economics, Psychology or History, every exam can be approached in much the same way with these exam writing tips.

We’re here to give you some help answering and writing exam questions that will show your knowledge to the person who reads your paper.

https://www.goconqr.com/en/examtime/blog/how-to-answer-exam-questions/

Regards!