ABSTRACT
As noted in chapter 1, the item-development process for any testing program involves many steps. Despite our best efforts, the number of items that survive after all item-development activities, checks, and reviews may be only around 50% (Holtzman, Case, & Ripkey, 2002). With such a low survival rate for new items, we want to use all the strategies possible to make the test item as good as it can be. This chapter presents guidelines for developing MC items and provides many examples of good and bad item-writing practices. A set of guidelines such as provided in this chapter should be adopted for use for any testing program. All new items should be subjected to a review for adherence to guidelines.
