Strategies to eliminate errors and bias MCQs With Answer

Introduction

Strategies to eliminate errors and bias in MCQs is a practical guide for M.Pharm students preparing to design, validate, and analyze multiple-choice questions in research methodology and assessments. This blog emphasizes evidence-based item-writing principles, quality-control processes such as blueprinting and peer review, and psychometric techniques (item difficulty, discrimination, point-biserial, KR-20/Cronbach’s alpha, and DIF analysis) to detect biased or flawed items. It outlines operational steps—pilot testing, distractor analysis, item revision, translation validation, and elimination of common cueing practices—to enhance validity and reliability. The goal is to equip students with actionable strategies to create fair, defensible MCQs that accurately assess higher-order pharmacy competencies.

Q1. Which practice most directly reduces construct-irrelevant variance and improves the validity of an MCQ exam?

• Blueprinting items to the specified learning objectives and weighting
• Using longer stems to include more background details
• Including “All of the above” to increase option variety
• Mixing item formats (true/false with MCQs) randomly

Correct Answer: Blueprinting items to the specified learning objectives and weighting

Q2. Which stem characteristic is recommended to avoid ambiguity and reduce error in MCQs?

• Complex negative phrasing to test careful reading
• Vague terms like “often” or “rarely” to allow interpretation
• Presenting a single, clearly stated problem with all necessary data
• Including irrelevant clinical vignettes to increase length

Correct Answer: Presenting a single, clearly stated problem with all necessary data

Q3. What is the most appropriate action when a distractor is chosen by fewer than 5% of examinees?

• Keep the distractor because rare selection shows discriminating power
• Revise or replace the distractor to improve plausibility
• Mark the item as high-quality without changes
• Change the key to that distractor to increase difficulty

Correct Answer: Revise or replace the distractor to improve plausibility

Q4. Which statistic is used to measure the internal consistency of a set of dichotomous MCQs?

• Kuder-Richardson Formula 20 (KR-20)
• Spearman’s rank correlation
• Cronbach’s alpha is invalid for dichotomous items
• Mantel-Haenszel common odds ratio

Correct Answer: Kuder-Richardson Formula 20 (KR-20)

Q5. An item has a difficulty index (p-value) of 0.92. What does this indicate and what action is recommended?

• The item is very easy; consider increasing difficulty or removing it
• The item is very difficult; provide hints in the stem
• The item has ideal difficulty; keep it unchanged
• The item discriminates well and should be duplicated

Correct Answer: The item is very easy; consider increasing difficulty or removing it

Q6. Which metric best identifies items that distinguish high-performing from low-performing candidates?

• Discrimination index (point-biserial or DI)
• Difficulty index alone
• Number of words in the stem
• Test administration time

Correct Answer: Discrimination index (point-biserial or DI)

Q7. Which practice helps eliminate cultural or language bias in translated MCQs?

• Back-translation and review by bilingual subject experts
• Literal one-step translation without review
• Use of idioms that are common in the source language
• Replacing clinical terms with local slang

Correct Answer: Back-translation and review by bilingual subject experts

Q8. What is a recommended guideline regarding option length and format to minimize cueing?

• Keep options similar in length, grammar, and complexity
• Ensure the correct option is always the longest
• Vary punctuation in options to signal the key
• Make implausible distractors obviously different in style

Correct Answer: Keep options similar in length, grammar, and complexity

Q9. Which statistical method is commonly used to detect differential item functioning (DIF) and potential bias between groups?

• Mantel-Haenszel procedure
• ANOVA on total test scores only
• Factor analysis without group comparison
• Chi-square test of option lengths

Correct Answer: Mantel-Haenszel procedure

Q10. Why is avoiding negative phrasing in stems (e.g., “Which is NOT”) usually recommended?

• Negative phrasing increases cognitive load and introduces avoidable errors
• Negative stems are always more valid and should be used often
• They reduce the number of plausible distractors
• They automatically increase item difficulty appropriately

Correct Answer: Negative phrasing increases cognitive load and introduces avoidable errors

Q11. Which item-writing practice reduces the risk of cueing the correct answer?

• Avoiding absolute terms and unintentional grammatical cues
• Using identical grammatical endings only for the correct option
• Placing the key always in the same option position
• Including “None of the above” as a frequent option

Correct Answer: Avoiding absolute terms and unintentional grammatical cues

Q12. Which post-test analysis step directly informs which items should be revised or discarded?

• Item analysis including difficulty, discrimination, and distractor functioning
• Counting the number of words in each item
• Recording average time spent per item without further analysis
• Comparing item font sizes across papers

Correct Answer: Item analysis including difficulty, discrimination, and distractor functioning

Q13. What is the typical threshold for point-biserial correlation below which an item is considered poor?

• Less than 0.20
• Greater than 0.50
• Exactly 0.30 is always poor
• Negative values are always ideal

Correct Answer: Less than 0.20

Q14. Which strategy helps reduce guessing effects and better reflect true knowledge on MCQs?

• Use well-constructed plausible distractors and consider formula scoring cautiously
• Provide only two options per item to simplify guessing
• Reward random guessing by giving partial credit to all responses
• Use identical distractors to confuse the examinee

Correct Answer: Use well-constructed plausible distractors and consider formula scoring cautiously

Q15. Which guideline improves fairness when combining items from different exam forms or administrations?

• Equating or using anchor items to adjust for form difficulty
• Randomly assigning different time limits per form
• Reordering items alphabetically by stem
• Allowing each form to have unique content without tracking

Correct Answer: Equating or using anchor items to adjust for form difficulty

Q16. Why is peer review and expert panel review important before finalizing MCQs?

• They identify content errors, bias, ambiguity, and ensure curricular alignment
• Peer review guarantees all items will have equal difficulty
• Expert panels always prefer longer stems and more distractors
• They primarily increase the number of test items for length

Correct Answer: They identify content errors, bias, ambiguity, and ensure curricular alignment

Q17. Which practice helps ensure higher-order cognitive skills are assessed rather than rote recall?

• Design clinical vignettes requiring application, analysis, or synthesis
• Focus exclusively on single-fact recall items
• Use true/false items instead of scenario-based MCQs
• Make all stems purely definitional without context

Correct Answer: Design clinical vignettes requiring application, analysis, or synthesis

Q18. If Cronbach’s alpha for an MCQ exam is 0.58, what is the appropriate interpretation and next step?

• Internal consistency is low; perform item analysis and revise or remove poor items
• Alpha of 0.58 indicates excellent reliability; keep exam unchanged
• Sample size must be reduced to increase alpha automatically
• Alpha below 0.60 means the test is biased and should be discarded entirely

Correct Answer: Internal consistency is low; perform item analysis and revise or remove poor items

Q19. Which option best describes a “single best answer” (SBA) MCQ and why is it preferred?

• One clearly superior option among plausible distractors; reduces ambiguity and measures application
• Any option can be accepted if examinee explains; increases subjectivity
• Two or more equally correct answers to increase complexity
• The option with the longest wording is chosen as best

Correct Answer: One clearly superior option among plausible distractors; reduces ambiguity and measures application

Q20. What quality-control practice should be done routinely after each examination to maintain a high-quality item bank?

• Conduct item-level psychometric analysis, document revisions, and update the item bank
• Archive answer sheets without analysis for future use
• Reuse all items unchanged to maintain historical comparability
• Discard items that performed well to reduce test length

Correct Answer: Conduct item-level psychometric analysis, document revisions, and update the item bank

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