Checklist for Item Writing

Domain/Skill: ______________________________

Direction: Evaluate the quality of test items against the criteria given below.

Remarks/
Criteria ✓ or X
Suggestions
Overall
1. Is the stimulus appropriate with the 
intended sub-skill?
2. Is the question congruent with the 
intended progression indicator?
3. Is the question appropriate for the 
indicated progression level?
4. Are there no spelling mistakes? 
5. Are there no grammatical errors? 
Stem
6. Is the stem clear and complete? 
7. Does the stem contain any jargon or
X
abbreviations?
8. Is the context given? 
9. Does the item test beyond recall of
knowledge?
10. Is the question/statement worded 
and structured in such a way that it
will be clear to the students what they
are expected to do?
Options
11. Are all options uniform (length,
grammatical construction)?
12. Are all options homogenous? 
13. Do any of the option(s) give a clue to
x
the answer?
14. Is there usage of ambiguous terms
x
(e.g. almost, never, frequent)?
15. Are there ‘‘all of the above’’ or ‘‘none
x
of the above’’ options?
16. Are there any ‘‘except’’ options? x
17. Are options mutually exclusive? x
Key
18. Is the key clearly the best option? 
Adapted and modified from the works of Naeem N., van der Vleuten C., & Alfaris
E.A. (2012). Faculty development on item writing substantially improves item
quality. Adv Health Sci Educ Theory Pract. 17(3):369-76. doi: 10.1007/s10459-011-
9315-2.
Checked by: GLORIA R. VALERA
MT-I