What is a question bank?

Question bank meaning

Put simply, a question bank is a store of reusable questions, tagged so the right ones can be found and combined into a paper.

The word “bank” fits well, since questions are deposited over time and drawn out when a paper needs them.

What a question bank contains

There’s more in a question bank than the question text. Each entry, often called an item, usually carries:

• The question itself, including any image, formula or passage it depends on.
• The answer or answer key, plus a marking guide for open answers.
• Marks the question is worth.
• Question type, such as multiple choice, true/false, numeric, short answer, essay, matching or ordering.
• Topic or unit of the syllabus it belongs to.
• Learning outcome it assesses, often a course outcome mapped to a program outcome.
• Cognitive level, commonly a level of Bloom’s taxonomy such as remember, apply or analyze.
• Difficulty, set by the author or learned from past results.
• Review status, showing whether the question has been checked and approved.
• History, such as when it was last used, so the same questions don’t come up too often.

These tags are what let you build a paper that covers the syllabus fairly.

Two kinds of question bank

People use the phrase in two different ways, and it’s worth keeping them apart.

Study question banks. These are books, websites and apps full of practice questions for students preparing for an exam. They’re public by design and meant for revision.

The examination question bank. This is the private, controlled collection an institution uses to set its real exams. The questions aren’t published, only authors and moderators can access them, and papers built from the bank are kept secure until the exam. Its purpose is to produce fair, valid papers.

The rest of this entry is about the examination question bank.

How an examination question bank is used

At a university or college, the bank is at the center of paper setting.

1. Plan the paper with a blueprint. The exam blueprint sets which units and outcomes the paper covers, the marks for each, and the mix of cognitive levels and question types.
2. Select questions. Questions are chosen from the bank to match the blueprint, either by hand or with software that searches the bank’s tags.
3. Moderate. A moderator, usually a senior faculty member, checks the paper for accuracy, coverage, difficulty and clarity.
4. Secure and release. The approved paper is stored securely and released only for the sitting.
5. Deliver. The paper is printed for a hall or delivered online. Online exams can draw questions from pools and shuffle them so neighboring candidates get different papers.
6. Review after the exam. Results show which questions worked and which were too easy, too hard or unclear, and weak items are revised or retired.

Why institutions keep a question bank

• Fairer papers. With a blueprint and a tagged bank, it’s easier to cover the syllabus evenly and keep different sets of a paper comparable.
• Evidence for outcomes. When questions are mapped to course and program outcomes, marks show how well each outcome was met, and that evidence supports outcome-based education and accreditation reviews.
• Less last-minute work. Faculty add questions through the term rather than writing a whole paper against a deadline.
• Better questions over time. Each exam produces data on how every question performed, so the bank keeps improving.

Related terms

• Item. One question in the bank, together with its answer and tags.
• Item pool. A group of interchangeable items, used to give different candidates different but equivalent questions.
• Exam blueprint. The plan for a paper, covering coverage, marks, levels and question types.
• Question paper. The finished set of questions for one sitting.
• Moderation. A review of questions or a paper by someone other than the author before it’s used.
• Item development. The work of writing, reviewing and tagging new questions for the bank.

Keeping an examination question bank secure

An examination question bank is only useful while its questions stay private. Common controls include:

• limiting who can view, add or edit questions, and logging every access,
• keeping finished papers locked until a set release time,
• using large item pools and randomized delivery for online exams, so no single paper is worth leaking,
• retiring questions that may have been exposed.

How to start a question bank

1. Agree the tags. Decide on the units, outcomes, cognitive levels, difficulty scale and question types every item has to carry.
2. Collect what you have. Gather questions from past papers and quizzes and weed out duplicates.
3. Tag and review. Map each question to its outcome and level, and ask a second faculty member to check it.
4. Fill the gaps. Compare the bank with your blueprints and write new questions wherever outcomes or levels are thin.
5. Review after every exam. Use the results to revise or retire weak questions.

Question banks in Proctorly

In Proctorly Examination, the question bank maps questions to course and program outcomes and Bloom’s levels and supports blueprints. AI can draft questions, but a moderator has to approve them, and finished papers are stored in a sealed paper vault with timed release. You can import existing questions from spreadsheets, Word documents or PDFs. See how the question paper generator builds papers from the bank, and how answers later move into on screen marking.

Frequently asked questions