This investigation of the effect of making a set of alternatives conform grammatically to a test item stem showed there is subject sensitivity to such cues. Content-free versions of American College Testing Assessment Experimental Social Science items representing singular-plural and vowel-consonant agreement without inappropriate grammatical situations were examined using freshman university students. Rephrasing items into neutral, but still precise and grammatically correct, language was found to eliminate sensitivity. Previous cueing research is presented in defining the present study. Two analyses of cue sensitivity are described. An appendix presents examples of the item types used in the study. (Author/CM)