A true-false item can be written in one of three forms: simple, complex, or compound. Answers can consist of only two choices (simple), more than two choices (complex), or two choices plus a conditional completion response (compound).

Sample true-false item:

• simple
  Conflict is essential in a play        True     False
• complex
  Conflict is essential in a play        True     False     Opinion
• compound
  Conflict is essential in a play        True     False
  If this statement is true, what makes it true?

Advantages in using true-false items

True-false items can provide:

• the widest sampling of content or objects per unit of testing time
  
• scoring efficiency and accuracy
  
• versatility in measuring all levels of cognitive ability
  
• highly reliable test scores
  
• an objective measurement of student achievement or ability

Limitations of using true-false items

True-false items:

• incorporate an extremely high guessing factor
  
• can often lead an instructor to write ambiguous statements due to the difficulty of writing statements which are unequivocally true or false
  
• do not discriminate between students of varying ability as well as other item types
  
• can often lead an instructor to favor testing of trivial knowledge

The compound questions can allow for more sophisticated questioning of understanding, but the fill-in-the blank portion of the question takes more time and leads to scoring ambiguities.

Suggestions for writing true-false test items

1. Base true-false items upon statements that are absolutely true or false, without qualifications or exceptions.

Undesirable: Costumes and setting tell an audience the time period represented in a play.

Desirable: Costumes and setting may be used to tell the audience the time period represented in a play.

2. Express the item statement as simply and as clearly as possible.

Undesirable: In presenting dramatic improvisations it is important to have props and some costumes and to know the whole story.

Desirable: In presenting dramatic improvisations the actors must know the characters and how the story begins.

3. Express a simple idea in each test item.

Undesirable: Twentieth Century American art included pop art and abstract expressionism.

Desirable: Abstract expressionism is an American painting style that stresses color and form for their own sake and has few identifiable objects.

4. Include enough background information and qualifications so that the ability to respond correctly to the item does not depend on some special, uncommon knowledge.

Undesirable: The second principle of education is that the individual gathers knowledge.

Desirable: According to John Dewey, the second principle of education is that the individual gathers knowledge.

5. Avoid lifting statements from the text, lecture or other materials so that memory alone will not permit a correct answer.

Undesirable: A dramatic text must, of necessity, mean different things to different individuals at any given moment. (Esslin)

Desirable: WAITING FOR GODOT will have a different meaning for an inmate in a prison than for a citizen on the street.

6. Avoid using negatively stated item statements.

Undesirable: Lighting does not suggest the time of day.

Desirable: Lighting does suggest the time of day.

7. Avoid the use of unfamiliar vocabulary.

Undesirable: Rhombus and trapezoid shapes might be the subject of Op Art.

Desirable: Geometric and other abstract shapes might be the subject of OP Art.

8. Avoid the use of specific determiners which would permit a test-wise but unprepared student to respond correctly. Specific determiners refer to sweeping terms like "all," "always," "none," "never," "impossible," inevitable," etc.. Statements including such terms are likely to be false. On the other hand, statements using qualifying determiners such as "usually," "sometimes," "often," etc., are likely to be true. When statements do require the use of specific determiners, make sure they appear in both true and false items.

9. False items tend to discriminate more highly that true items. Therefore, use more false items than true items (but no more that 15% additional false items.)

Copyright © 2002 by Arizona State University and the Arizona Board of Regents.