Republic of the Philippines

MARIKINA POLYTECHNIC COLLEGE

Sta. Elena Marikina City
GRADUATE STUDIES

ITEM ANALYSIS
DEFINITIONS

✔ It is a statistical technique which is used for selecting and rejecting the basis of their
difficulty value and discriminating power.
✔ It is a process which examines student responses to individual test items (questions) in
order to assess the quality of those items and of the test as a whole.
✔ It is valuable for increasing instructors’ skills in test construction, and identifying specific
areas of course content which need greater emphasis or clarity.
✔ The quality of the test as a whole is assessed by estimating its “internal consistency.”
The quality of individual items is assessed by comparing students’ item responses to
their total test scores.
BENEFITS OF 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 preparations of better tests in the future.
LIMITATIONS OF ITEM ANALYSIS
● It cannot be used for essay items.
● Teachers must be cautious about what damage may be due to the table of
specifications when items not meeting the criteria are deleted from the test. These
items are to be rewritten or replaced.
WHY DO ITEM ANALYSIS?
● Encourage teachers to undertake an item analysis as often as practical.
● Allowing for accumulated data to be used to make item analysis more reliable.
● Providing for a wider choice of item format and objectives.
● Facilitating the revision of items.
● Facilitating the physical construction and reproduction of the test.
● Accumulating a large pool of items to allow for some items to be shared with the
students for study purposes.
Item analysis should bring to light both questions and answers as you revise items from your
test.
• Is the item difficulty level appropriate?
• Does the item discriminate appropriately?
• Are the distractors effective?

Prepared by: GROUP 4 (Reymark Barro, Vanessa Mae Baylon, Xian Buensalida, Ednalyn Diolata, Remi Grace Landagan,
Blecemie Montera, Vivialyn Padolina, Maica Vergara)
Item Difficulty (index of difficulty) – Indicates the proportion of students who got the item
right.
It answers the question: “Is the exam too easy or too hard?”

⮚ A high percentage indicates an easy item or question and low percentage indicates
a difficulty item.
⮚ In general, items should have values of difficulty of not less than 20% and not greater
than 80%.
⮚ A very difficult or very easy items contribute to the discriminating power of a test.

𝑹𝑼 + 𝑹𝑳
𝑰𝒕𝒆𝒎 𝒐𝒇 𝒅𝒊𝒇𝒇𝒊𝒄𝒖𝒍𝒕𝒚 =
𝑵
RU – the number of upper group who answers
correctly.

RL - the number of lower group who answers

correctly.

N – total number of students in two groups

Item Discrimination (index of discrimination) – It refers to the ability of an item to differentiate

among students on the basis of how well they know the material being tested.

It answers the question: “Does the exam question discriminate between students who
understand the lesson/material and those who do not?”

⮚ The discrimination index range is between -1 and +1.

⮚ The closer the index is to +1, the more effectively the item distinguishes between the
two groups of students.
⮚ If the discrimination index is negative, such item should be revised and eliminated from
scoring as it indicates that the lower performing students actually selected the correct
response more than the top performers.

𝑹𝑼 − 𝑹𝑳
𝑰𝒕𝒆𝒎 𝒐𝒇 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒄𝒓𝒊𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 =
𝑵𝑮
RU – the number of upper group who
answers correctly.

RL - the number of lower group who answers

correctly.

NG– number of students in each group.

Prepared by: GROUP 4 (Reymark Barro, Vanessa Mae Baylon, Xian Buensalida, Ednalyn Diolata, Remi Grace Landagan,
Blecemie Montera, Vivialyn Padolina, Maica Vergara)
Item Distracter – also known as a foil or a trap, is an incorrect option for a selected-response
item on an assessment.
It answers the question: “Do exam questions effectively distract test takers from the correct
answer?”

⮚ Preferably, each distracter should be selected by a greater proportion of the lower

scores than of the top performers.
⮚ In order for a distractor to be acceptable, it should attract at least one student.
⮚ If no one selects a distractor it is important to revise the option and make the distractor
more plausible choice.
DISTRACTOR ANALYSIS

⮚ Distractor analysis is an extension of item analysis, using techniques that are similar to
item of difficulty and item of discrimination.

⮚ In distractor analysis, however, we are no longer interested in how test takers select the
correct answer, but how the distractors were able to function effectively by drawing
the test takers away from the correct answer.

⮚ The number of times each distractor is selected is noted in order to determine the
effectiveness of the distractor.

⮚ We would expect that the distractor is selected by enough candidates for it to be a

viable distractor.

⮚ The discrimination index for each distractor can be calculated using the discrimination
index formula.
EXAMPLE:

Result of Item 18 taken by 21 Grade VI students in Math Achievement Test Subject for
Analysis.

PUPILS SCORE ANSWER PUPILS SCORE ANSWER

1 79 C 12 85 C
2 78 C 13 77 B
3 91 C 14 84 D
4 76 A 15 90 D
5 86 C 16 92 A
6 95 C 17 98 C
7 93 A 18 67 A
8 87 A 19 75 B
9 73 C 20 67 D
10 67 C 21 78 A
11 88 C
*C – CORRECT ANSWER

Prepared by: GROUP 4 (Reymark Barro, Vanessa Mae Baylon, Xian Buensalida, Ednalyn Diolata, Remi Grace Landagan,
Blecemie Montera, Vivialyn Padolina, Maica Vergara)
The Steps in item analysis are the follows:
1. Arrange the scores from highest to lowest.
SCORE ANSWER
77 B
SCORE ANSWERS 76 A
SCORE ANSWER
98 C 75 B
87 A
95 C 73 C
86 C
93 A 67 C
85 C
92 A 67 A
84 D
91 C 67 D
79 C
90 D
78 C
88 C
78 A
2. Get one third of the papers from the highest scores and one third from the lowest scores.

LOWER GROUP (L)

UPPER GROUP (U) 77 B
98 C 76 A
95 C 75 B
93 A
73 C
92 A 67 C
91 C 67 A
90 D 67 D
88 C

3. Count the number of pupils in the upper and lower groups, respectively, who chose the
options.

4. Record the frequency from Step 3. The frequency can be recorded on the item card or on
spread sheet.

ITEM 18
OPTIONS A B *C D E
UPPER GROUP (7) 2 0 4 1 0
LOWER GROUP (7) 2 2 2 1 0

5. Estimate the index of difficulty. The index of difficulty is shown in formula as follows.
𝑅𝑈+𝑅𝐿
Index of difficulty = 𝑁

Where
RU – the number of upper group who answers correctly.

RL - the number of lower group who answers correctly.

N – total number of students in two groups

Prepared by: GROUP 4 (Reymark Barro, Vanessa Mae Baylon, Xian Buensalida, Ednalyn Diolata, Remi Grace Landagan,
Blecemie Montera, Vivialyn Padolina, Maica Vergara)
Given:
RU = 4 SCALE RANGE DIFFICULTY
1 0.81 – 1.00 SUPER EASY
RL = 2 2 0.61 - 0.80 EASY
N = 14 3 0.41 – 0.60 MODERATE
4 0.21 - 0.40 DIFFICULT
𝑅𝑈+𝑅𝐿
Index of difficulty = 5 0.00 – 0.20 VERY
𝑁
DIFFICULT
4+2
= 14
6
= 14

= 0.4286 (Moderate)

6. Estimate index of discriminating power.

- in estimating the index of discriminating power, consider the difference of the right
response between the upper group (RU) and right response from lower group (RL) divided by
the number of pupils in each group (NG).
𝑅𝑈−𝑅𝐿
Index of Discrimination = 𝑁𝐺
SCALE RANGE DISCRIMINATING
GIVEN: 1 0.81 – 1.00 VERY DISCRIMINATING
RU = 4 2 0.61 - 0.80 HIGHLY DISCRIMINATING
3 0.41 – 0.60 MODERATELY DISCRIMINATING
RL = 2 4 0.21 - 0.40 FAIRLY DISCRIMINATING
5 0.00 – 0.20 POORLY DISCRIMINATING
NG = 7
𝑅𝑈−𝑅𝐿
INDEX OF DISCRIMINATION = 𝑁𝐺
4−2
= 7
2
=7

= 0.2857 (fairly discriminating)

Prepared by: GROUP 4 (Reymark Barro, Vanessa Mae Baylon, Xian Buensalida, Ednalyn Diolata, Remi Grace Landagan,
Blecemie Montera, Vivialyn Padolina, Maica Vergara)
GROUP ACTIVITY
FINDING THE INDEX OF DIFFICULTY AND INDEX OF DISCRIMINATION

RESULT OF ITEM 10 TAKEN BY 30 GRADE VII STUDENTS IN ENGLISH ACHIEVEMENT TEST SUBJECT
FOR ITEM ANALYSIS.

STUDENT SCORE ANSWER

STUDENT SCORE ANSWER 21 36 A
STUDENT SCORE ANSWER
1 44 B 22 27 B
11 48 B
2 33 B 23 20 C
12 35 B
3 25 A 24 32 D
13 47 B
4 46 A 25 33 B
14 30 D
5 36 B 26 26 C
15 31 C
6 28 A 27 25 B
16 23 D
7 20 A 28 22 B
17 42 B
8 39 B 29 26 D
18 19 B
9 36 C 30 25 C
19 38 D
10 41 C
20 44 B
*B – CORRECT ANSWER

STEP 1: Arrange the scores from highest to lowest

Prepared by: GROUP 4 (Reymark Barro, Vanessa Mae Baylon, Xian Buensalida, Ednalyn Diolata, Remi Grace Landagan,
Blecemie Montera, Vivialyn Padolina, Maica Vergara)
STEP 2: Get one third of the papers
from the highest scores and one
third from the lowest scores.

GIVEN:
RU = ____
RL = ____
NG = ___
𝑅𝑈+𝑅𝐿
INDEX OF DIFFICULTY = 𝑁

= _____
= _____
(________________)

𝑅𝑈−𝑅𝐿
INDEX OF DISCRIMINATION = 𝑁𝐺

= _____
= _____
(________________)

Prepared by: GROUP 4 (Reymark Barro, Vanessa Mae Baylon, Xian Buensalida, Ednalyn Diolata, Remi Grace Landagan,
Blecemie Montera, Vivialyn Padolina, Maica Vergara)