with a lead-in question explaining how the respondent must answer. In a medical multiple choice items, a lead-in question may ask "What is the most likely diagnosis?" or "What pathogen is the most likely cause?" in reference to a case study that was previously presented.

The items of a multiple choice test are often colloquially referred to as "questions", but this is a misnomer because many items are not phrased as questions. For example, they can be presented as incomplete statements, analogies, or