Tests provide one measure of our students’ learning according to the standards of the instructor and the field. But tests also affect our students socially, emotionally, and financially and influence their science-minded identities for years to come. We owe it to students to create fair tests with transparent expectations, clear guidelines for studying, and questions that adhere to scholarly practices. Our goal at the 2020 Teaching Professor Conference was to provide a road map to improving the quality of the machine gradable test items. We emphasized crafting and aligning learning objectives with test items and provided an item-writing checklist to help instructors critique and improve their test items.