Instructional design practice questions

About this practice suite

This suite prepares candidates for instructional design selection in the education and educational support sector with 5 skill areas: critical thinking, planning and scheduling exercises, verbal reasoning, situational judgment and problem solving. Every question was written by Novus editors for this suite (none are taken from live or leaked exams), and the full bank holds 52 scored questions across three modes, plus 8 reserve questions used to vary repeat attempts. Answer keys never ship to the browser: your answers are scored server-side, and results stay on your device.

Skills this suite practises

• Critical thinking: Evaluating evidence, assumptions, arguments, credibility, and alternative explanations.
• Planning and scheduling exercises: Resources, dependencies, deadlines, constraints, and contingency planning.
• Verbal reasoning: Drawing conclusions from written information without relying on outside assumptions.
• Situational judgment: Evaluating workplace responses against role-relevant principles.
• Problem solving: Selecting methods, combining information, troubleshooting, and reaching practical solutions.

Sample questions from the guided bank

Two of the 10 guided-practice questions, shown exactly as they appear in a session. Answers and explanations are not printed here, because keys stay on the server. Open guided practice to answer them and see how you did.

1. A well-written learning objective should primarily specify:

   • A. How many slides the designer prefers
   • B. Observable learner performance under defined conditions and criteria
   • C. The LMS brand the institution licenses
   • D. A vague hope that learners “understand the topic”

2. Stakeholders want a flashy video module, but the objective is “calculate dosage from a table.” Best instructional response?

   • A. Ship the video because stakeholders asked
   • B. Refuse any media discussion
   • C. Choose practice-with-feedback that elicits the calculation skill; use video only if it supports that practice
   • D. Replace the objective with “enjoy watching video”

Practice modes and timing

Guided practice is untimed-feeling and instructional; the mini-test is a short timed check; the full simulation mirrors a complete sitting. All three draw on separate question sets, so moving up a mode never repeats what you practised.

Study outline

Read the study outline for this suite’s skills, timings, and recommended lessons on one printable page, or take the full study guide away as a PDF, a spreadsheet, plain text, or HTML. Each download contains every skill’s complete lesson, not a list of links.

• Download full study guide (HTML) Opens in any browser, works offline.
• Download full study guide (PDF) Paginated, print-ready, opens anywhere.
• Download full study guide (CSV (spreadsheet)) Opens in a spreadsheet, one row per item.
• Download full study guide (Plain text) Plain text for notes apps and screen readers.