The Optimal Number of Options in a Multiple-Choice English Test

Abstract

While multiple-choice tests are efficient in terms of test administration and scoring, it is both time-consuming and difficult to construct good items. To design a good multiple-choice item, it is important to include attractive distracters as options. Another factor that may determine the quality of a test item is the number of options. In general, test items with more options are believed to have more item discrimination power. For this reason, in recent years five options have been widely adopted in many English language tests. However, increasing the number of options does not necessarily guarantee a test with high discrimination power. In practice it is difficult and often impossible to develop as many as five good alternatives. Thus, this study compared five options with three or four options and examined the item discrimination index as a function of the number of options. The findings of the study indicated that the three options had the highest item discrimination power. It can be inferred from the finding that designing ‘functioning’ options rather than increasing the number of options should be the primary concern in constructing test items.