KA questions style guide

$\bullet$‍ As you work, preview the question in mobile mode to ensure it is legible by mobile users. This may require sizing images down (280-360px typically works well for mobile) or making other formatting adjustments.

$\bullet$‍ Phrase the question clearly and concisely. The question should be unambiguous; students should not be confused about what you’re asking. The question is always written in bold font.

$\circ$‍In exercises meant for test prep courses like AP, try to mirror the language on the test as much as possible. Our goal is to have $75$‍% of our questions be AP-style questions in every exercise in a AP course.

$\circ$‍Put any special instructions in italics in a new paragraph immediately after the question/prompt (i.e., put two spaces after the question/prompt then hit return once so that there’s no blank line before the italic text that follows).

$\circ$‍Questions with instructions should look like this example:

Round your answer, if necessary, to the nearest hundredth.

$\bullet$‍ Use names from this list of international names to support our international translations.

$\circ$‍Please don’t use names that are also nouns (e.g. Sunny, Violet, Tank, etc…). If those words exist as nouns in other places on the site, they will create a translation conflict, where there is only one string (e.g. “Sunny”) with multiple meanings (a person’s name, a weather condition). Our translation tools only allow one translation per string, so translators have to translate it knowing that it will be incorrect in some of the contexts where it appears.

$\bullet$‍ Create unique question scenarios. Students will enjoy questions involving places other than school, the park, and home. There is a new tab on the international list of names spreadsheet of popular international sports. We will continue to add topics to that list that are relevant worldwide.

$\circ$‍ To keep students more engaged, do not use the same scenario more than twice in one exercise.

$\bullet$‍ Questions often include some content preceding the actual command or question. The command or question should come after the contextual content in its own paragraph and should be bolded. For example:

OR

$\bullet$‍ Do not begin items with mathematical symbols. Always introduce math with text.

$\circ$‍ To introduce math in an item that tests a single skill, you can use a one-word instruction, such as the following: Add, Subtract, Multiply, Divide, Calculate, Compute, Simplify, Evaluate, Find, Determine, Solve.

$\cdot$‍ Do this: Evaluate $-23+14+23+1+(-14)$‍

$\cdot$‍ Not this: $-23+14+23+1+(-14)$‍

$\circ$‍You can also use “What is...” to phrase the problem as a question.

$\cdot$‍ Do this: What is $-7+(-1)$‍?

$\cdot$‍ Not this: $-7+(-1)=$‍ ?

$\bullet$‍ Present context first. If your question includes a graph or table, provide context on it before showing it. We don’t want students to have to scroll down to figure out why they’re looking at a graph or table. Do this:

$\bullet$‍ Information can be provided through context and diagrams, but it is best not to repeat the same information through both. Here is an example:

$\bullet$‍ Students should not need to look at “acceptable formats” to know what format we’re looking for in the answer. If the answer is a percent, the question should say something like “what percent is x?”

$\bullet$‍ If an exercise has multiple items that all follow the same format, keep the wording across items (including the question and the hints) exactly the same whenever possible. Translators have a tool that lets them automate translation when the same phrase is repeated over and over again, so if you introduce slight variations to phrases that could be identical, it can double, triple, or quadruple their workload.

$\circ$‍Example: Have the final hint say “The answer is __” across all items in an exercise, instead of a mix of “That gives us as the answer,” “Therefore the answer is ,” “ is our final answer,” etc…

$\circ$‍This also means you should be very careful to format identical phrases the same, since variation in the number of spaces and linebreaks, colors (i.e. \blue vs \blueD), etc… will all prevent the auto-translation tool from working.

$\bullet$‍ For more in-depth guidance on multiple choice questions and rationales, refer to this doc!