Multiple Choice
Here is a typical multiple-choice question and
the terms we’ll use to refer to its various parts:
|
|
| 4. |
If  degrees, then what is the area of rectangle ACDE? |
| (A) |
 |
| (B) |
5 |
| (C) |
7 |
| (D) |
35 |
| (E) |
49 |
|
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 these
answer choices is correct; the other four answers are called distractors,
because that’s exactly what they’re 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.
