True or False - Guidelines
DEFINITION
A true/false question requires that the learner choose an either/or response from two choices. The choices can be true or false, yes or no, agree or disagree.
GUIDELINES FOR CONSTRUCTION
Guidelines for Constructing True-False Tests
1. CLARITY – Use statements upon which clear judgments can be made:
o Avoid ambiguous/indefinite terms.
o Avoid broad, general statements.
o Both parts of a cause-effect relationship must be true - the student should determine if the relationship is true or false.
o Avoid long or complex sentences.
o Avoid negative statements, especially two negatives in one sentence.
o Attribute statements of opinion to a source unless discrimination between fact and opinion is specifically being measured.
2. CLUES - Avoid unintentional clues:
o Avoid the use of specific determiners; for example, all, none, never, always, generally.
o Avoid answer patterns. Responses should be both randomly sequenced and approximately evenly proportioned.
o Avoid length cues, all sentences should be of similar length.
3. RELEVANCE - Relate to Objects
o Relate items to specific learning objectives.
o Avoid trivial content.
True/false questions present a statement, and prompt the student to choose whether the statement is truthful. Students typically have a great deal of experience with this type of question.
Guidelines for Constructing True-False Tests
1. Read each true/false statement completely and carefully. If all the information is
true, mark the answer as true. If even one word is wrong, mark the answer as
false.
2. Answer the questions according to the directions. Watch out for multi-part directions.
Guessing Tips:
1. If the true/false statement is much longer than the other statements, it is more
likely to be true.
2. There are usually more true answers than false answers on a test. This
happens because it is easier for teachers to copy true statements directly from
textbooks than to make up believable false statements. Also, most teachers
would rather have their students remember the true statements instead of the
false ones.
3. Statements that contain “numbers” have a better chance of being true. According
to research, 80% of true/false statements containing numbers were true.