ITEM ANALYSIS

ITEM DIFFICULTY


It is defined as the number of students who are able to answer the item correctly divided by the total number of students.

INDEX OF DISCRIMINATION


Tells whether it can discriminate between those who know and those who do not know the answer. It is the difference between the proportion of the upper group who got an item right and the proportion of the lower group who got the item right.

RANGE OF DIFFICULTY INDEX

RANGE INTERPRETATION ACTION Revise or discard

0-0.25 0.26-0.75 0.76above

Difficult Right difficulty Easy

Retain Revise or Discard

RANGE OF DIFFICULTY INDEX

RANGE INTERPRETATION Can discriminate but item is questionable ACTION

-1.0 --0.50

Discard

-.55--0.45 0.46-1.0

Non discriminating Discriminating item

Revise Include

BENEFITS DERIVED FROM ITEM ANALYSIS



It provides useful information for class discussion of the test It provides data which helps students improve their learning It provides insights and skills that lead to the preparation of better tests in the future

PREPARING DATA FOR ITEM ANALYSIS (Payne,1992)



Arrange test scores from highest to lowest. Get one-third of the papers from the highest scores and the other third from lowest scores. Record separately the number of times each alternative was chosen by the students in both groups.

Add the number of correct answers to each item made by the combined upper and lower groups. Compute the index of difficulty for each item, following the formula


IDF = (NRC / TS) X 100)

Where:
IDF = index of difficulty  NRC = number of students responding correctly to an item  TS = total number of students in the upper and lower groups


Compute the index of discrimination, based on the formula:



IDN = (CU CL) / NSG



Where:  IDN = index of discrimination  CU = number of correct responses of the upper group CL = number of correct responses of the lower group NSG = number of students per group

DIFFICULTY INDEX OF A TEST ITEM CAN BE INTERPRETED WITH THE USE OF THE FOLLOWING TABLE OF EQUIVALENTS:

RANGE DIFFICULTY INDEX 20 and below very difficult 21 40 difficult 41 60 average 61 80 easy 81 & above very easy

USING INFORMATION ABOUT INDEX OF DISCRIMINATION

RANGE .40 & above .30 - .39 .20 - .29 .09 - .19 VERBAL DESCRIPTION very good item good item fair item poor item