Common Multiple Choice Mistakes Quiz

Answer: 2

Of course the answer is two...Canada and Mexico. The problem with my answer choices (and this is a very common giveaway at Quizzyland) is that I have made it obvious for players 'in the know'. Commonly what quizmakers will do is choose the correct answer, the two whole numbers surrounding that answer and then another number some distance away. Nine out of ten times, if you pick the 'middle' number, you will guess correctly. Normally, I find number answers to be a bit boring, but if you insist on using questions with number answers the best way to deal with it is to include a sequence of four consecutive numbers or four numbers divided by equal increments, or better yet...just four random numbers. Oh yes, and I suggest that you don't always use one of the middle two numbers, this will increase the unpredictability of your question!

Answer: Holocene

The major bases are: adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine (and uracil). Did you notice a problem in the answers? One of them was capitalized...the correct one. I don't know why, but this seems to be a common occurrence here at Funtrivia, does anyone have any theories as to why? Do the best you can not to make the answer stand out!

Answer: Tomatoes.

Of course, tomatoes grow on vines! Did you notice the giveaway in that question? This time I capitalized all of the answers, but notice at the end of 'Tomatoes' I added a period? For some reason, this happens quite frequently as well in quizzes here. Again, if your goal is to make a quiz challenging, don't allow the correct answer to stand out by adding bits of punctuation, etc. Of course, your goal might be to give a little hint, and this would be a subtle way to do that...but what would be the point? Give the quiztakers a challenge at the very least.

Answer: Alexander!

Alexander, in the 4th century BC. All of the others ruled in the AD period. This time, an exclamation point gives you the answer.

Answer: D. H. Lawrence

The early 20th century author D. H. Lawrence wrote 'Sons and Lovers', as well as several other novels, including 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' and 'The Rainbow'. The problem with the multiple choice answers is clear. First, an incorrect choice is given with the same last name (John Lawrence), then an incorrect choice is given with the same first initials (D. H.), finally the last name is inverted and made a first name in the other incorrect choice (Lawrence Johnston). Through the process of elimination, the player can easily ascertain the proper answer even if s/he doesn't have a clue about which one it is. Again, this might be the specific intention of the quiz author...to help the player out with these little clues.

But if you intend to make the question challenging, it would be most appropriate to simply come up with three alternative and plausible (and real...I made the other names up) British authors, e.g.

Henry James, Virginia Woolf and Thomas Hardy.

Answer: Sigmund Freud

Of course it was Sigmund Freud, the only German (and scientist) listed. Surprisingly, it's fairly common to see wrong multiple choice answers that are completely implausible like this. If you are going to specify 'German' and 'scientist', please be sure that each of your selections is in fact a German scientist. Better alternative choices would have been Einstein, Planck, and various others.

Answer: All of these

Naturally, all of the choices listed for the question are considered 'Earth Sciences'. The giveaway comes in the guise of 'All of these'. I would estimate that roughly 95% of the time when people use the choice 'All of these', that is the answer. The use of 'All of these' as an answer choice is not an error, per se.

The 'error' arises when a quizmaker frequently employs this answer choice, but never uses it as an incorrect answer. Essentially, for most quizmakers, the use of that choice almost guarantees the answer. I would challenge quizmakers to occasionally use this choice, and 'None of these', as decoys, just to keep the quiztakers on their toes!

Answer: He comes out of a coma, regains his memory and reunites with his girlfriend Lydia

For anyone who hasn't seen the Terry Gilliam-directed film, I highly recommend it...and don't want to give anything else away! The point of this question, and the answer choices offered, is to remind people about 'symmetry'. Typically with multiple choice questions, if one answer seems inordinately longer than the rest, that will be the correct answer. Ideally with multiple choice answers you will want to make them all plausible (of course!) and additionally, all about the same length in words.

Avoid prolixity. The correct answer to the question could just as well have been 'He reunites with Lydia' or 'He regains his memory'. As has been mentioned before, don't allow the correct answer to stand out...as if it's waving the quiztakers down!

Answer: True

Certainly it does, and there's an obvious reason why...with a fill-in-the-blank question you only have to come up with one reasonable answer choice...the correct answer! With a multiple choice question you are required to create four possible answers, three of which are incorrect. All three of the incorrect choices must be potentially acceptable, but only one can be the indisputable answer. Considering the above questions and answers, this is not always easy!

Answer: False

Obviously, it's not possible for that to be true, though I would wager to guess that most players prefer at least a majority of the questions in each quiz to be multiple choice. Some people love the challenge of a fill-in-the-blank question, if it's not too difficult but yet poses some challenge. Generally speaking, quiztakers want their multiple choice questions to be somewhat challenging as well.