Over a century or so, testing has been the most common way to determine the achievement of the learners in educational centers. Among many test formats, multiple-choice has been more common for which many rules and regulations have been suggested for preparing sound items. Many researchers, therefore, have focused on whether observing the rules would improve the quality of multiple¬choice tests. So, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of faulty options on item characteristics. To accomplish this goal, a sample of 50 male and female participants was chosen trom the students majoring in TEFL. Participants were given two multiple¬choice tests in a week interval; (1) Michigan Test of English Grammar, and (2) Distorted Michigan Test of English Grammar. The
results of this study revealed that in general, violation of item-writing principles did not significantly influence item characteristics. However, use of grammatical clues made the distorted items significantly easier.
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