Section 2: Item Analysis

1.0 Difficulty Index

The item difficulty index is a common and very useful analytical tool for statistical analysis,
especially when it comes to determining the validity of test questions in an educational
setting. The item difficulty index is often called the p-value because it is a measure of
proportion. Formula:

B
p=
J

p = difficulty index

B = number of students that answer the questions correctly

J = total number of students who sits for the exam

Item 1

6
p= ¿ 0.6
10

Item 2

10
p= ¿1
10

Item 3

8
p= ¿ 0.8
10

Item 4

5
p= ¿ 0.5
10

Item 5

8
p= ¿ 0.8
10

Item 6
 8
p= ¿ 0.8
10

Item 7

5
p= ¿ 0.5
10

Item 8

6
p= ¿ 0.6
10

Item 9

3
p= ¿ 0.3
10

Item 10

6
p= ¿ 0.6
10
2.0 Discrimination Index

The discrimination index is a basic measure of the validity of an item. It is a measure of an

item's ability to discriminate between those who scored high on the total test and those who
scored low. Though there are several steps in its calculation, once computed, this index can
be interpreted as an indication of the extent to which overall knowledge of the content area
or mastery of the skills is related to the response on an item.

i)Formula to determine top scorers

27% X Total number of students

27% X 10 = 2.7

= 3 students (Abu, Bala and Chong)

ii)Formula to determine bottom scorers

27% X Total number of students

27% X 10 = 2.7

= 3 students (Han, Indera and Jung)

iii) Formula for item Discrimination Index

U −L
Di=
0.5 N

Di = discrimination index

U = number of students from the upper criterion group that had gotten the item correctly

L = number of students from the lower criterion group that had gotten the item correctly
N = number of students that had tried to answer the item

Item 1

3−1
Di= ¿ 0.6 7
0.5 (6)

Item 2

3−3
Di= ¿0
0.5 (6)

Item 3

2−2
Di= ¿0
0.5 (6)

Item 4

3−1
Di= ¿ 0.6 7
0.5 (6)

Item 5

3−1
Di= ¿ 0.6 7
0.5 (6)

Item 6

3−1
Di= ¿ 0.6 7
0.5 (6)

Item 7

3−1
Di= ¿ 0.6 7
0.5 (6)

Item 8

3−0
Di= ¿1
0.5 (6)

Item 9
 1−2
Di= ¿−0.3 3
0.5 (6)

Item 10

2−1
Di= ¿ 0.3 3
0.5 (6)

Item Difficulty Index Discrimination Index

( p) ( Di)

1 0.6 0.67

2 1 0

3 0.8 0

4 0.5 0.67

5 0.8 0.67

6 0.8 0.67

7 0.5 0.67

8 0.6 1

9 0.3 -0.33

10 0.6 0.33
QUESTIONS

1) Which question was the easiest?

Question 2 was the easiest because it has the highest difficulty index. This item has a
difficulty index of 1. This item is being easy for the examinees answered Item 1 correctly.
Even Jung who scored 30% in total answered this item correctly. Thus, this proves that
question 2 was the easiest.

2) Which question was the most difficult?

Difficulty index below 0.25 indicates the most difficult questions. In this case, Question 9 is
the most difficult compared to other questions. This is because Question 9 had a difficulty
index of 0.3. More than half of the students answered this item wrongly. Hence, this item
proved to be the most difficult question.

3) Which item has the poorest discrimination?

Question 9 has the poorest discrimination because the discrimination index for this item is
-0.33. The lower the discrimination index, the poorer the item because such a value
indicates that the item needs to be rejected or revised. Hence this is the poorly discriminated
question.

4) Which questions would you eliminate first (if any) and why?

I would eliminate Question 9. This item had the discrimination index of -0.33 and the
difficulty index of 0.3. This item is discriminating negatively because even the top scorers are
getting the item wrong and the least knowledgeable examinees are getting the item right.
This indicates that the item is measuring something other than what the rest of the test is
measuring. Therefore, this question should be eliminated first.