Multiple Choice
Here is a typical multiple-choice question and the terms
we’ll use to refer to its parts:
|
|
| 3. |
What month saw the greatest increase
in enrollments? |
| (A) |
October |
| (B) |
November |
| (C) |
December |
| (D) |
January |
| (E) |
February |
|
The sentence containing the question is the stem.
The lettered options below the stem are called the answer
choices. Numerical answer choices are always listed in order
from smallest to largest or largest to smallest. Only
one of the answer choices is correct; the other four answer choices
are called distractors, because that is exactly what
they are designed to do—distract attention from
the correct answer. The stem and answer choices grouped together
are called an item. An entire multiple-choice
section comprised of several items is called a set.
