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A multiple choice question is the one with several choices of which only one choice is correct.

What type of question is the following? It has multiple answers.

Which of the following are planets?
1) Jupiter
2) Moon
3) Mars
4) Earth
5) Sun

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2 Answers

up vote 6 down vote accepted

The term multiple response item has been used for multiple choice questions where several answers are correct. Variants of multiple choice or response questions include extended matching items, for which a group of choices is given up front and applied singularly or plurally to following questions; true, true and unrelated-type questions; and less-well-known Paul Revere questions.

The blog entry just mentioned does not define Paul Reveres, but contains an example. The question, "BlogMed 2011 would be used to:" is followed by choices 1 through 4 and the remark "The answer is C, 2 and 4!". That is, C stands for choices 2 and 4 being correct, 1 and 3 not.

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up vote 3 down vote

The term I've always heard and used myself is the one you give, a multiple choice question.

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Funny enough, in Israel these are called "American questions." – Mark Nov 13 '11 at 8:02
If the one I have mentioned is a Multiple choice question, how would you call a question with only one correct answer? – Ragunath Jawahar Nov 13 '11 at 8:21
1  
@Mark -- is that because (a) questions of that kind are found on American standardized tests, (b) American tourists tend to ask that kind of question, (c) to make fun of Americans generally, or (d) all of the above? – Malvolio Nov 13 '11 at 19:54
@RagunathJawahar: I'd never heard of a different term to mark the distinction between questions where only one answer is correct and those where there's more than one answer. I'd always known "multiple choice question" for both. But jwpat7's answer gives new information to me as well, therefore it is the answer you should accept. – Irene Nov 13 '11 at 20:03
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