💡 Once your blueprint is published, item writing happens in the Develop area of the platform. Publishing doesn't move you there automatically; you'll navigate to it in a couple of clicks.
❓ Why are items organized by topic?
Each topic in your blueprint carries a weight — a percentage of the exam that content area should represent. Items are written per topic so the platform can track whether you've hit your targets for each area before building a form. Without topic-level organization, there's no way to guarantee the exam reflects the blueprint's structure.
Getting to Item Writing
7.0.1 In the left navigation, click Develop. The Develop menu opens with two groups: Content (Item writing, My items, Item management, Translations) and Exam setup (Exams, Screens, Standard settings, Rescoring), plus Experts.
7.0.2 Under Content, click Item writing. You'll see a list of your organization's published blueprints. Any blueprint with items waiting for your review also appears as a card at the top, with a Review item button.
7.0.3 Click Write Items next to your blueprint to open its Item Writing view.
The Item Writing View
The view shows your blueprint's name (prefixed with your organization name), with each topic listed below.
Each topic row displays:
- Write: begins writing an item for that topic
- Admin ▾: admin controls for that topic (assign authors, adjust targets)
- The topic name and description (toggle visibility with Show Topics Description)
- Target: items needed for this topic, derived from its blueprint weight
- Target Adjustment: any manual changes made to the original target
- Items Needed: the live shortfall still to be written
The header totals (e.g., Target: 79, Items Needed: 79) show your overall pool progress at a glance. Use the Topics filter box to find a topic quickly in larger blueprints.
Toolbar (upper-right):
- Job/Role — reopen the Job/Role Description for reference while writing
- Invite Content Authors (person+ icon) — invite SMEs to write items
- ⚙️ Blueprint Settings
- Show Topics Description toggle
- Hide Completed toggle — cleans up the view as topics reach their targets
- ✨ AI Bulk Generation — generates multiple items at once across topics
💡 Written items are reviewed in Develop → Content → Item management, covered in Step 7.3.
❓ Should I write items one at a time or use AI Bulk Generation?
Bulk generation is the fastest way to fill a new item pool. It drafts many items at once from your topic descriptions and any Reference Content uploaded in Blueprint Settings. Writing one item at a time gives you more control and suits topics that need careful, scenario-based items. Many programs combine the two: bulk-generate a first draft of the pool, then write targeted items to fill the gaps. Either way, every AI-generated item needs human review before it goes on an exam.
Starting an Item
7.0.4 Click Write on the topic you’d like to write for.
7.0.5 In the "Select an Item Type" modal, choose your format and click Continue. Formats include Single Correct Response variants (Two through Six options), Multiple Correct Response variants, and more. The list is paginated, so browse if you don't see the format you need.
❓ Which item type should I pick?
Single Correct Response with 4 Options is the industry-standard default: familiar to candidates, straightforward to write well, and statistically well-understood. 3 Options is a strong alternative, especially for internal, training, or lower-stakes exams: it measures nearly as well, and every distractor can be a realistic mistake instead of filler. Fewer options (Two or Three) raise the odds of guessing correctly; more options demand more plausible distractors, which are hard to write. Multiple Correct Response formats test more complex judgment but are harder to score and author. Unless your program has a specific reason otherwise, four options is the safe home base — and note that only the item types enabled in Blueprint Settings will appear here.
7.0.6 Next, the AI-Assisted Item Generator modal asks: "Would you like to use AI to help you write your item?" Choose your path:
- ✨ Write an AI-Assisted Item: AI drafts the item from your description. Continue to [Step 7.1: Writing Items with AI].
- Next Time: write the item manually in the editor. Continue to [Step 7.2: Writing Items Manually].
Next step → Step 7.1: Writing Items with AI or Step 7.2: Writing Items Manually
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