Geethanjali College of Engineering and Technology, Cheeryal, Keesara (M), RR Dist.

Designing a Good Assignment/Question Paper

All the faculty members have been given training on the following:
"Design, Assessment and Evaluation" of
i. Assignments
ii. Question papers in internal assessment/examinations
iii. Scope of questions in external examinations
iv. Laboratory examinations
v. Project work, if any
Faculty have been explained on the characteristics of a good question, and what it should measure,
which are given below.
Characteristics of a good question:
Questions in assignments must be thought provoking.
They should preferably test the students on the higher order thinking skills of Bloom's Taxonomy,
namely, "Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation".
They should be more involved in testing the students' logical reasoning, analytical thinking, flair and
abilities for analysis, design and evaluation.
The following are characteristics of a "good question":
1. Objective based: A question should be based on a pre-determined objective and should be framed in
such a way that it tests the objective effectively so that the achievement of outcome vis-à-vis the
objective can be analyzed and measured.
2. Instructions: It should specify a particular task through the instructions. For this, appropriate
directional words should be used as clearly indicated in Bloom's Taxonomy, and structured situation
should be given indicating the objective thereby facilitating the measurement of the outcome.
3. Scope: It should indicate the limit and the scope of the answer (length of the answer) in accordance
with the estimated time and marks allotted to it.
4. Content: The question should test the same area of content which it intends to test.
5. Form of Question: The form of question depends on the objective and the content area to be tested.
Some forms are better than the others for testing certain abilities (Please refer to Bloom's
Taxonomy).
6. Language: A good question is framed in a clear, precise and unambiguous language, well within the
comprehension of the students.
7. Difficulty level: A question should be written keeping in view the level of the students for whom it is
meant. The difficulty of the question depends upon the ability to be tested, the content area to be
tested and the time available to answer it.
8. Discriminating power: A good question must distinguish between bright students and others.
9. Delimited scope of the answer: The language of the question should be specific and precise so that
the scope of the expected answer is clearly defined.
10. Marks: Marks carried by a question as a whole and also its sub parts should be clearly mentioned in
proportion to the time required to answer the question.