Eleven question types, one bank

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StudyDrome Exam Manager includes eleven question types in a single shared bank. Six mark themselves the moment a candidate submits. Essay, Short Answer, File Upload, and OSCE Station reach the grading queue. Likert Scale collects opinion and never counts toward the mark. Every type carries points, tags, and an optional difficulty band.

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Which question types can an exam use?

Eleven types. Each one means the same thing wherever it appears: in the question bank, on the paper, in the marking queue, and in the results. The names below are the ones on screen.

Type	What the candidate does	Marking	When it earns its place
Multiple Choice	Picks one option from several	Automatic, all or nothing	Broad coverage at scale. One best answer, and a near miss earns nothing
True/False	Accepts or rejects one claim	Automatic, all or nothing	Fast checks on a rule or a fact. Cheap to write, cheap to sit
Checkboxes	Picks every option that applies	Automatic, partial credit optional	When the answer is a set, such as every drug that interacts
Sequence	Puts steps in the right order	Automatic, partial credit by position	Procedures and protocols, where the order is the competence
Matching	Joins pairs across two lists	Automatic, partial credit by pair	Terms to definitions, findings to diagnoses, drugs to classes
Fill in the Blank	Types the missing word into the stem	Automatic	Recall you want produced, not recognized from a list
Short Answer	Writes a sentence or two	Grading queue	Reasoning too short for an essay and too open for a key
Essay	Writes an extended answer	Grading queue	Judgment, structure and argument, marked by a person
File Upload	Submits a file they produced	Grading queue	Work made outside the browser: a drawing, a scan, a spreadsheet
OSCE Station	Performs at a station, live	Examiner app, scored on a scale or a checklist	Clinical skill watched in person by an examiner
Likert Scale	Rates a statement on a fixed scale	Collected, never counted toward the mark	Course feedback or self-rating beside an exam, with no effect on the mark

Six types mark themselves: Multiple Choice, True/False, Checkboxes, Sequence, Matching and Fill in the Blank. Four routes to the grading queue. Likert collects opinion. One bank feeds both exam types, so written exams and OSCE exams draw from the same items, tags, and skills.

For the craft of writing the stem and the options, read how to write flaw-free MCQs and how many distractors an MCQ should have.

If you are bringing a bank across from another system, check what to inventory before you migrate a question bank — the structured types are the ones that need planning.

How are the automatic types scored?

Every question carries a point value. It can be fractional and is never negative, so a saved question always carries real weight.

An account can also set a minimum point value. Every question has to meet it, whether it is new, edited, or re-weighted after publishing. Leave the minimum at 0, and no floor applies. On screen, the field is called "Mark point".

Partial credit is a toggle on the question itself. Turn it on and three types award proportional credit:

Checkboxes: every right selection earns credit, and every wrong one costs it, so a guess-everything answer earns nothing. A score never drops below zero.
Sequence: credit for each step placed in the right position.
Matching: credit for each pair joined correctly.

Multiple-Choice and True/False stay all-or-nothing: one selection, one key. The rules are fixed and identical for every paper, so two markers of the same paper always agree.

How do you record how hard a question is?

Each question can carry a difficulty label. The editor calls the field "Difficulty Level" and groups it into four named bands, each step with a written descriptor, so an author picks a meaning rather than a number:

Easy:Recall and simple comprehension.
Moderate:Applied knowledge through analysis.
Hard:Multi-step reasoning and integration.
Very Hard:Rare scenarios and expert-level synthesis.
Optional:Difficulty is a label, not a requirement. A question can sit in the bank without one.

Who decides the difficulty, the author or the data?

Both, and they answer different questions. The division of labor is clean.

The author sets the intended difficulty while writing. That label is what a blueprint reads and what difficulty-weighted scoring uses. It says how hard the item was meant to be.

The measured difficulty arrives later, from real candidate responses. Item analysis reports how many candidates got each item right after delivery, as well as how well the item separated strong candidates from weak ones and how its wrong options performed. That says how hard the item turned out to be.

So the label records intent and the measurement records the result. Reading the two side by side is how a bank gets better each year.

How is an OSCE Station question scored?

A station is marked by an examiner against a scoring scale: a named, ordered set of levels with a label and a description for each, such as Not done, Partially done, Done. You build them under "Scoring Scales".

One scale per station:The whole station is judged on a single scale. This is the default.
Or one scale per item:Each checklist item gets the scale that fits it, chosen per question.
Reusable:Scales are shared across your account. Build a scale once, then use it across stations and cohorts.
Retired without loss:A scale you no longer use can be deactivated, so past papers keep the scale on which they were marked.
Clinical skills:Stations also carry skills from your own library, managed under "Clinical Skills". It is how medical schools classify stations, alongside tags.

What holds the eleven types together?

A type means the same thing everywhere: in the bank, on the paper, in marking, and in reporting.
All eleven live in the same bank, under the same tags, points, and version history. Nothing is a separate product.
Likert items collect opinions and never count toward the mark, so a survey block never moves a candidate's score.
The partial-credit rules are fixed and identical for every paper, so two markers of the same paper always agree.
Difficulty is the author's label. The measured difficulty comes later, from item analysis.
A context item is a single vignette shared across many questions, and it accompanies them into the published paper.
Clinical skills are in a shared library, so a station's skill means the same thing across all exams.

Who needs a question bank this wide?

Medical and health-sciences schools that blueprint written papers and OSCE stations from a single bank.
Exam offices running mixed papers, where an essay and an MCQ sit on the same paper.
Course teams collecting feedback beside the exam, with the survey kept clear of the mark.

Frequently asked questions

How many question types does StudyDrome Exam Manager support?

Eleven. They are Multiple Choice, True/False, Checkboxes, Sequence, Matching, Fill in the Blank, Short Answer, Essay, File Upload, OSCE Station, and Likert Scale. Six mark themselves, four reach the grading queue, and Likert collects opinions. All eleven live in the same question bank, and each type behaves the same way wherever it appears.

Which question types mark themselves?

Six: Multiple Choice, True/False, Checkboxes, Sequence, Matching, and Fill in the Blank. Multiple Choice and True/False are all-or-nothing, with one selection and one key. Checkboxes, Sequence, and Matching can award partial credit when the toggle on the question is on. The rest of the paper is placed in a grading queue for a person to mark.

How does partial credit work on a checkbox question?

Every right selection earns credit, and every wrong one costs it, so a guess-everything answer earns nothing rather than a penalty, and a score never drops below zero. Sequence credits each step in the correct position, and matching each pair is joined correctly. The rules are fixed and identical for every paper.

What is a Likert Scale question for?

Opinion, gathered in the same tool as the exam. A Likert item asks a candidate to rate a statement on a fixed scale, and it never counts toward the mark. That means a course-feedback block or a confidence self-rating can sit beside real questions, and it will never move a candidate's score.

What does the difficulty level on a question do?

It records the author's intent. The scale is shown on screen as four named bands, Easy to Very Hard, with a written descriptor at every step. The label feeds difficulty-weighted scoring and blueprint reporting. The measured difficulty arrives separately from real candidate responses in item analysis.

Can several questions share one case vignette?

Yes. A context item is a titled stem, held in a bank and linked from many questions. Candidates read it in a side panel while they answer. A test can keep context-linked questions together when it shuffles, and that grouping is on by default. A case, therefore, reaches the candidate as one block in the right order.

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Bring one mixed paper. We will build it from the eleven types, publish it, and show you what marks itself and what reaches the queue.

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Eleven question types, one bank

Ask for the evidence you actually need

Which question types can an exam use?

How are the automatic types scored?

How do you record how hard a question is?

Who decides the difficulty, the author or the data?

How do several questions share one case vignette?

How is an OSCE Station question scored?

What holds the eleven types together?

Who needs a question bank this wide?

Frequently asked questions

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