ITEM ANALYSIS

Dr. Jebamalar J

Summary
Definition
Objectives
Uses In Education
Terminologies
Steps in Item analysis
Using the result
References

Item analysis - Definition

Item analysis is a statistical technique which is used for

selecting and rejecting the items of the test on the basis of

their difficulty value and discriminated power

Objectives of Item analysis

To select appropriate items for the final draft
To obtain the information about the difficulty value(D.V) of

all the items

To provide discriminatory power (D.I) to differentiate
between capable and less capable examinees for the
items
To provide modification to be made in some of the items
To prepare the final draft properly ( easy to difficult items)

Uses in Education
Select best questions
Identify structural content defect in question
Detect learning difficulties
Identify weakness
Interpretation of students performance
Understand behavior of item
To become better competent teachers.
Control the quality of a test.
Evaluate the students.

 Point out problems of validity test by revising and

eliminating ineffective items

Find out performance of group
Reveals the facility value of each ofthe item and the
discrimination.

Steps of Item analysis

Arrange the scores in descending order
Separate two sub groups of the test papers
Take 27% of the scores out of the highest scores and

27% of the scores falling at bottom

Count the number of right answer in highest group (R.H)
and count the no of right answer in lowest group (R.L)
Count the non-response (N.R) examinees

Terminologies in Item analysis

Item difficulty
Item difficulty Index
Difficulty level
Facility value
Item discrimination
Discrimination index
Distractor evaluation
Inter item correlation
Item total correlation
Item revision
Difficulty value (D.V)
Discriminative power (D.P)

ITEM DIFFICULTY
It is measured by calculating the percentage of test-takers
who answer the item correctly.
ITEM DIFFICULTY INDEX:
P=R/N X 100 R - No of pupil who answered the item
correctly, N - Total No of pupil who tried them
DIFFICULTY LEVEL =(Average on the test/ Max. Possible
score) X 100

FACILITY VALUE = (No. of students answering the

question correctly/No. of students who have taken the test)
X100
ITEM DISCRIMINATION:
The way an item differentiates students who know the
content from who do not know

Difficulty value
The difficulty value of an item is defined as the proportion

or percentage of the examinees who have answered the

item correctly - J.P. Guilford
The formula for difficulty value (D.V) D.V = (R.H + R.L)/
(N.H + N.L)
R.H rightly answered in highest group
R.L - rightly answered in lowest group
N.H no of examinees in highest group
N.L - no of examinees in lowest group

 In case non-response examinees available,

The formula for difficulty value (D.V) D.V = (R.H + R.L)/

[(N.H + N.L)- N.R]

R.H rightly answered in highest group
R.L - rightly answered in lowest group
N.H no of examinees in highest group
N.L - no of examinees in lowest group
N.R no of non-response examinees

Discrimination Index - Definition

Index of discrimination is that ability of an item on the

basis of which the discrimination is made between

superiors and inferiors - Blood and Budd (1972)

Types of Discrimination Index

Zero discrimination or No discrimination
Positive discrimination
Negative discrimination

ZERO OR NON DISCRIMINATION:

The item of the test is answered correctly or know the
answer by all the examinees
An item is not answered correctly any of the examinee
POSITIVE DISCRIMINATION INDEX:
An item is correctly answered by superiors and is not
answered correctly by inferiors.
The discriminative power range from +1 to -1.
NEGATIVE DISCRIMINATION INDEX:
An item is correctly answered by inferiors and is not
answered correctly by superiors.

Formula
The formula for discrimination index(D.I) D.I = (R.H - R.L)/

(N.H or N.L)
R.H rightly answered in highest group
R.L - rightly answered in lowest group
N.H no of examinees in highest group
N.L - no of examinees in lowest group

General guidelines for discriminating index (D.I)

According to Ebel , D.I Item Evaluation 0.40 Very good

items 0.30 - 0.39 Reasonably good but subject to

improvement
0.20 0.29 Marginal items , need improvement
<0.19 Poor items . Rejected or revised

General guidelines for difficulty value (D.V)

Low difficulty value index means, that item is high difficulty

one
ex: D.V=0.20 20% only answered correctly for that item.
So that item is too difficult
High difficulty value index means, that item is easy one
ex: D.V=0.80 80% answered correctly for that item.
So that item is a too easy one

D.V Item Evaluation

0.20 0.30 Most difficult
0.30 - 0.40 Difficult
0.40 0.60 Moderate difficult
0.60 0.70 Easy
0.70 0.80 Most easy

Relationship between difficulty value and

discrimination power
Both (D.V & D.I) are complementary not contradictory to

each other
Both should considered in selecting good items
If an item has negatively discriminate or zero
discrimination, is to be rejected whatever the difficulty
value

CRITERIA FOR SELECTION AND REJECTION OF

ITEMS
Positive discrimination index only selected
Negative and zero discrimination index items are rejected
High and low difficulty value items are rejected

DISTRACTOR EVALUATION
In addition to evaluation of correct answers to an item
distracters or wrong answers also individually evaluated
INTER-ITEM CORRELATION
This matrix displays the correlation of each item with
every other item.
This matrix provides important information about a tests
internal consistency, and what could be done to improve
it.

ITEM-TOTAL CORRELATIONS
Point-biserial or item-total correlations assess the
usefulness of an item as a measure of individual
differences in knowledge, ability, or personality
characteristic.
Here each test item (incorrect = 0;correct =1) is correlated
with the persons total test score.
ITEM REVISION
Developing a valid and reliable test is an ongoing process.
It helps the faculty to recall items and student responses
to them.
Item revision should be conducted after item analysis.

USING ITEM ANALYSIS RESULT

Judge the worth or quality of a test.
Aids in subsequent test revision
Increase skills in test construction
Planning future activities.
Basis for discussing test result
Promotion of students to the next higher grade
Improve teaching methods and techniques

References
Sharma R.A (2007);Essential of Scientific Behavioural

Research, Meerut, Lall book depot.

Mehta D.D (2011);Educational Measurement and
Evaluation, Meerut, Tandon publication.
Kulbir Singh Sidhu (2005);New Approaches to
Measurement and Evaluation, New Delhi, Sterling
Publishers.
Akbar Husain (2012);Psychological Testing, New Delhi,
Pearson.