Today I was studying for a popular computer networking certification exam and noticed they were using an anti-pattern when writing their test questions. When writing test questions, only test one thing at a time. The “select all that apply” approach is lazy at best and unnecessarily creating landmines at worst. Take this question for example:

• Raindrops on roses

• Whiskers on kittens

• Bright copper kettles

• Warm woolen mittens

Let’s assume that all of these answers are correct. If you select any three of these options, then your answer would get scored as incorrect, even though you were correct three different times. These types of multiple response questions conflate getting a correct answer and getting all the correct answers.

Don’t do that. Instead, only include one correct answer.

• Make the correct answer significantly longer than the others

• Have only one correct answer

• Use absolutes such as “always true” or “never true”

• Use “none of the above”

• Use “all of the above”