In the 1950s Benjamin Bloom led a group of psychologists to develop Bloom’s Taxonomy, a classification of the levels of learning. The taxonomy is a pyramid; the basic and bottom level of learning is knowledge. Building up, learners are expected at the next levels to apply, analyze, synthesize and finally evaluate the information they have gained. 

For example, examine the following questions. The first is a simple recall question, and the second asks the user to apply what they have learned.

Which of the following age groups includes the most frequent victims of ingested poisonings involving household products?

a. Children

b. Teenagers

c. Adults

d. Elderly

You respond to a wheat farm where your patient, 48 year old Darrell has a large chemical burn covering his right hand and right lower arm. Darrell reports that he was mixing a liquid solution of pesticide, when it splashed onto his ungloved hand and arm. What is the transmission route for this type of poisoning is:

a. Surface absorbed

b. Ingested

c. Inhaled

d. Injected

When writing multiple choice quiz questions, it is vital to remember the taxonomy to ensure to ask learners to not only recall information but also to understand, apply, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate what they have learned.

Responses – The choices.

• Ensure that you include a correct response.
• Avoid responses that include: A and B, Only A and B, None of the Above, and All of the Above. These are often confusing and cause unnecessary student analysis.
• Make all responses approximately the same length visually.
• Do not include obvious fluff responses that are clearly not the correct response.
• Do not attempt to trick or tempt your students into answering incorrectly.
• Remember one answer needs to be clearly correct.