ap multiple choice questions

ap multiple choice questions

Effective Strategies for Creating AP Multiple Choice Questions

1. Introduction to AP Multiple Choice Questions

Most advanced placement (AP) teachers, at some point in the academic year, construct objective multiple-choice questions for their exams from the numerous samples in the course guide. Some teachers take practice multiple-choice tests published by review books, while others construct their own questions similar to the test format. Some teachers use the released questions from previous tests as multiple choices instead. The strategy that I propose will benefit both AP teachers and students. It is the combination of AP exam released multiple-choice questions, which a multiple year comprises of 40 questions on each section in multiple choice, the short-question format of the test that is written, and the rigorous form of questioning that the AP English Language and Composition guides provide us with.

2. Key Components of Effective AP Multiple Choice Questions

All of these multiple choice questions are built on what the College Board identifies as the key components of an effective question. These components are directly aligned to the Skills and Learning Objectives statements of the course description, which have been published in the course description materials. When writing multiple choice questions for an AP subject, your job, as a teacher, is to do your best to align your multiple choice questions with the specific Learning Objectives of the course. When developing your learning objectives for your particular curriculum, remember to look for those specific objectives identified in the “Skills” part of the AP Course Description. After you have identified the relevant objectives and designed specific learning objectives for your students, the next obvious step is to create effective multiple choice questions reflecting these objectives.

Students want to practice for the Advanced Placement (AP) multiple choice questions with items that adhere to the specific format and constraints of the exam. Developing effective multiple choice items that mirror the complexity of an AP question is a daunting task. The College Board has designated three different types of multiple choice questions that are used on the various AP exams. Each exam has a different allotment of questions drawing from these three categories, and each question appears in its designated area on the exam. The three question types are: discrete questions, stimulus-based questions, and questions that involve non-stimulus material. In this chapter, we will explore the differences between these question types and the reasoning behind exposing students to these varied question formats.

3. Strategies for Writing Clear and Concise AP Multiple Choice Questions

As you develop items for the multiple choice items you write, it is important to remember that the items you construct increase the chances that your learners will indeed demonstrate what you expect. Since both you and your learners have invested time to master the content within your course, design consistent, clear, and unambiguous questions where learners demonstrate what you expect. The following strategies will help you to organize, create, and maintain effective multiple choice items that will consistently demonstrate what you expect and allow everyone to be successful.

Writing multiple choice items that are free of grammar, language, and other mechanical errors takes a lot of time and attention to detail. Basically, all the things that you learned about writing better essays. The strategies below give some help with questions that are problematic from a grammatical point of view and provide some guidance on how to write multiple choice items in a clear and concise manner. Basically, you will use many of the same writing strategies as you do for essay writing. The criteria that follow are based upon standards that have been developed by the various professional testing community and research on multiple choice items.

4. Best Practices for Ensuring Fairness and Avoiding Bias in AP Multiple Choice Questions

Your commitment to fairness and to detecting student understanding of progress toward proficiency as outlined in the curriculum framework comes from your recognition of your obligations as an MCQ author. You are assisting publishers who are legally responsible to ensure the selection, establishment, and proper general administration of all tests and related materials, and for interpreting and applying the test specifications, including the examination of all items to ensure that they do not reflect bias and/or the language of one group over another.

Standardization and the use of clear, universally accepted references are essential for creating AP multiple choice questions (MCQs) that detect student understanding of science and engineering practices rather than test-taking skills. The best process for creating AP MCQs asks item developers to work in small teams rather than working as individuals. These guidelines provide the essential, should-be-routine checks that must be applied to every AP MCQ prior to being pretested. Scientific decisions are refined by global agreement. A good MCQ should be beyond useful; it should be essential. MCQs that are not useful because they are biased or do not detect student understanding should be thrown out.

5. Utilizing Technology and Data Analysis to Improve AP Multiple Choice Questions

Advanced Data Analysis, advanced data analysis (both sample and complete live data) can provide valuable information about AP items. Once multiple-choice questions have been constructed, they could also be posted to a secure area of the CB website so that the validity of these questions could be checked. Generally, items that pass these large validity checks are included in drafts of AP tests. Educational Testing Service follows this process. Data analysis software allows users to link AP multiple-choice question data with other data on the test item, including, but not limited to, data on the prompt rather than the essay, question-order effects, and data on the statistics from the response surface. With advanced data analysis software, multiple-choice items (referred to as “stems”) from a number of prompt essays can be retrieved and tracked between forms.

Digital Content Management AP multiple-choice questions are conceived in an open-ended fashion, written in correct language, and then entered into DCM hardware that includes character recognition and voice recognition. The essays are handled as nonsecure test items are, and student responses are scored. If items function as desired, work stops on a particular shower module. If items do not function as desired, the items are revised and retested, and human content experts step in to decide the final content that appears in the completed examination form. Using technology for item entry and item banking allows questions to be entered and analyzed instantaneously. Using voice retrieval would eliminate passage selection as an important step in the review process. If it was desired, multiple forms of an examination could be created instantaneously using a combination of DCM hardware and software.