Quest Ladder
TeachFORGE.ai
Quest Ladder / The stem
The question stem and stem variants
The stem, and the trick that stops a class recognising the same question twice.
Same question, different sentence.
Writing the stem
The Question stem step holds the text a learner reads first, built from content blocks. Any value that changes between versions is inserted from the Insert tray rather than typed.
The advice that matters most is to put the question at the end. A learner scanning a stem finds the instruction faster when it is the last sentence, and a stem that opens with three lines of context before saying what to do reads as harder than it is.
Never refer to an option by its letter. Options are shuffled when the question generates, so as shown in option B is wrong for most learners. Refer to the Choice id instead.
Stem variants
A stem variant is an alternative wording of the same question, sharing the same parameters and the same answer. Generation picks one at random, so two learners with the same numbers can still meet different sentences.
The editor recommends them for exam, assignment and sprint modes, with at least two including the primary stem. Those are the modes where a learner may see the type more than once, or where two learners sitting together should not be reading identical text.
- Add variant copies the current stem as a starting point, which is usually what you want.
- Add blank variant starts from nothing, for a genuinely different framing.
- Duplicate variant and Remove variant manage the rest.
Writing a good variant
The constraint is strict and easy to break: every variant must have the same answer for the same parameter values. That rules out changing what is given and what is asked for, and rules in almost everything else.
- Change the context: the same rate problem about a train, a tap and a queue.
- Change the setting: the same grammar question asked about a postcard, a shop or a weather forecast.
- Change the direction of the sentence: how long does it take against find the time taken.
- Change what is foregrounded, so the same numbers arrive in a different order.
Two or three good variants is plenty. Ten wordings of the same question is a lot of surface for a mistake to hide in, and every one of them has to be re-read when the question changes.
Checking them
Generate samples on the Review stage until you have seen each variant at least once, and read them against the same answer. The failure to look for is a variant that has quietly changed which quantity is unknown — it reads fine and marks everyone wrong.