There are quite a few ways to go about writing a set of good test questions, but in order to do so, you have to keep a lot of things in mind. For instance: What information do you want to glean from their answers? Are the questions clear enough? Is this the best format for these kind of questions? There's a lot to it, and this chapter offered a few ways to improve your style of test-making.
One way to keep students concentrated and not bored to death during your test is to vary the kinds of questions or prompts you're using. This will keep them on their toes mentally, as well as allow you to see that they understand what is being tested from all angles. It is important also that you avoid confusing the students. Using negatives in a question can sometimes confuse younger students, so it's best to always write the questions in the positive format. If you do wish to use the negative, consider bolding it or something similar to ensure that they're truly answering the question, because if they get it wrong due to a reading error, you're not really testing for understanding the content at all, are you? Make your prompts and questions clear. Timed tests can cause stress and skew your data, keeping a test shorter will allow students to focus more easily as it's for a shorter amount of time. Teir questions as warranted, but also try to put a little fun into the questions, as this returns again to the idea of keeping kids on their toes, always guessing. I think all of these are great ideas, and that I will use them in my future tests so that taking them doesn't become monotonous. One example I saw discussed putting students in sentences from the tests doing odd things like buying yachts or 100 watermelons, and when I mentioned this idea to my roommate she reminded me that people love to hear / see their names, and seeing their fellow peers in silly circumstances could be funny.
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