Assessment of Learning 1 (by Y. Gabuyo, et. al) MR. EDWIN C.

SERINA
Week 8
IMPROVING TEST ITEMS
General Instructions: Hello everyone! You are given with this pamphlet that covers important points about the
topic(s) for the week. You are expected to read, study, and answer the activities given at the end of this self-learning
handout. You are also encouraged to use other learning resources about our topic. You can approach me for some
queries thru my messenger (Edwin Serina) or thru my email ad (eserina@smchindang.edu.ph).
Within the week, you are expected to learn the following skills:

1. Solve difficulty index and discrimination index;

2. Identify the level of difficulty of an item;
3. Perform item analysis properly and correctly; and
4. Identify the item to be rejected, revised, or retained.

How to improve the test item?

Example 1. A class is composed of 40 students. Divide the group into two. Option B is the correct answer. Based on
the given data on the table, as a teacher, what would do with the test item?

Options A B* C D E
Upper Group 3 10 4 0 3
Lower Group 4 4 8 0 4

1. Compute the difficulty index.

n = 10 + 4 = 14
N = 40
DF = n = 14 = 0.35 0r 35%
N 40
2. Compute the discrimination index
CUG = 10; CLG = 4; D = 20

D1 = CUG - CLG = 10 – 4 = 6 = 0.3 or 30%

D 20 20
3. Make an analysis about the level of difficulty, discrimination and distracters.
a. Only 35% of the examinees got the answer correctly, hence, the item is difficult.
b. More students from the upper group got the answer correctly, hence, it has a positive discrimination.
c. Retain options A, C, and E because most of the students who did not perform well in the overall examination
selected it. Those options attract most students from the lower group.
4. Conclusion: Retain the test item but change option D. Make it more realistic to make it effective for the upper and
lower groups. At least 5% of the examinees choose the incorrect option.

Example 2. A class is composed of 50 students. Use 27% to get the upper and lower groups. Analyze the item
given the following results. Option D is the correct answer. What will you do with the last item?
Options A B C D* E
Upper Group (27%) 3 1 2 6 2
Lower Group (27%) 5 0 4 4 1

1. Compute the difficulty index.

n = 6 + 4 = 10
N = 28
DF = n = 10 = 0.36 0r 36%
N 28
2. Compute the discrimination index
CUG = 6; CLG = 4; D = 4

D1 = CUG - CLG = 6 – 4 = 2 = 0.14 or 14%

D 14 14
3. Make an analysis.
 a. Only 36% of the examinees got the answer correctly, hence, the item is difficult.
b. More students from the upper group got the answer correctly, hence, has positive discrimination.
c. Modify options B and E because more students from the upper group choose them compare with the lower
group, hence, they are not effective distracters because most of the students who performed well in the
overall examination selected them as their answers.
d. Retain options A and C because most of the students who did not perform well in the overall examination
selected them as the correct answers, Hence, options A and C are effective distracters.
4. Conclusion: Revise the item by modifying options B and E.

Example 3. A class is composed of 50 students. Use 27% to get the upper and the lower groups. Analyze the item
given the following results. Option E is the correct answer. What will you do with the test item?
Options A B C D E*
Upper Group (27%) 2 3 2 2 5
Lower Group (27%) 2 2 1 1 8

1. Compute the difficulty index.

n = 5 + 8 = 13
N = 28
DF = n = 13 = 0.46 0r 46%
N 28
2. Compute the discrimination index
CUG = 5; CLG = 8; D = 4

D1 = CUG - CLG = 5 – 8 = - 3 = -0.21 or -21%

D 14 14

3. Make an analysis.
a. 46% of the examinees got the answer to test item correctly, hence, the test item is moderately difficult.
b. More students from the lower group got the item correctly, hence, it is a negative discrimination. The
discrimination index is -21%.
c. No need to analyze the distracters because the item discriminates negatively.
d. Modify all the distracters because they are not effective. Most of thee students in the upper group chose the
incorrect options. The options are effective if most of the students in the lower group chose the incorrect
options.
4. Conclusion: Reject the item because it has a negative discrimination index.

Example 4. Potential Miskeyed Item. Make an item analysis about the table below. What will you do with the test that
is a potential miskeyed item?

Options A* B C D E
Upper Group 1 2 3 10 4
Lower Group 3 4 4 4 5

1. Compute the difficulty index.

n=1+3=4
N = 40
DF = n = 4 = 0.10 0r 10%
N 40
2. Compute the discrimination index
CUG = 1; CLG = 3; D = 20
D1 = CUG - CLG = 1 – 3 = - 2 = -0.10 or -10%
D 20 20
3. Make an analysis.
a. More students from the upper group choose option D than option A, even though option A is supposedly
the correct answer.
b. Most likely the teacher has written the wrong key.
 c. The teacher checks and finds out that he did not miskey the answer that he thought is the correct answer.
d. If the teacher miskeyed it, he must check and retally the scores of the students’ test papers before giving
them back.
4. Conclusion: Reject the item because it has a negative discrimination index.

Example 5. Ambiguous item. Below is the result of item analysis of a test with an ambiguous test item. What can you
say about the item? Are you going to retain, revise or reject it?

Options A B C D E*
Upper Group 7 1 1 2 8
Lower Group 6 2 3 3 6

1. Compute the difficulty index.

n = 8 + 6 = 14
N = 39
DF = n = 14 = 0.36 0r 36%
N 39
2. Compute the discrimination index.
CUG = 8; CLG = 6; D = 20
D1 = CUG - CLG = 8 – 6 = 2 = 0.10 or 10%
D 20 20
3. Make an analysis.
a. Only 36% of the students got the answer to the test item correctly, hence, the test item is difficult.
b. More students from the upper group got the item correctly, hence, it discriminates positively. The
discrimination index is 10%.
c. About equal numbers of top students went for option A and option E, this implies that they could not tell
which is the correct answer. The students do not know the content of the test, thus, a reteach is needed.
4. Conclusion: Revise the test item because it is ambiguous.

Example 6: Guessing item. Below is the result of an item analysis for a test item with students’ answers mostly based
on a guess. Are you going to reject, revise or retain the item?
Options A B C* D E
Upper Group 4 3 4 3 6
Lower Group 3 4 3 4 5

1. Compute the difficulty index.

n=4+3=7
N = 39
DF = n = 7 = 0.18 0r 18%
N 39
2. Compute the discrimination index.
CUG = 4; CLG = 3; D = 20
D1 = CUG - CLG = 4 – 3 = 1 = 0.05 or 5%
D 20 20
3. Make an analysis.
a. Only 18% of the students got the answer to the test item correctly, hence, the test item is very difficult.
b. More students from the upper group got the correct answer to the test item, therefore, the test item is a positive
discrimination. the discrimination index is 5%.
c. Students respond about equally to all alternatives, an indication that they are guessing.
Three possibilities why student guesses the answer on a test item:
 the content of the test item has not yet been discussed in the class because the test is designed
in advance;
 test items were badly written that students have no idea what the question is really about; and
 test item were very difficult as shown from the difficulty index and low discrimination index.
d. If the test item is well-written but too difficult, reteach the material to the class.
4. Conclusion: Reject test item because it is very difficult and the discrimination index is very poor, and options A and
B are not effective distracters.

Example 7. The table below shows an item analysis of a test item with ineffective distracters. What can you conclude
about the test item?
Options A B C* D E
Upper Group 5 3 9 0 3
Lower Group 6 4 6 0 4

1. Compute the difficulty index.

n = 9 + 6 = 15
N = 40
DF = n = 15 = 0.38 0r 38%
N 40
2. Compute the discrimination index.
CUG = 9; CLG = 6; D = 20
D1 = CUG - CLG = 9 – 6 = 3 = 0.15 or 15%
D 20 20
3. Make an analysis.
a. Only 38% of the students got the answer to the test item correctly, hence, the test item is difficult.
b. More students from the upper group answered the test item correctly, as a result, the test got a positive
discrimination. The discrimination index is 15%.
c. Options A, B and E are attractive and effective distracters.
d. Option D is ineffective; therefore, change it with more realistic one.

4. Conclusion: Revise the item by changing option D.

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ACTIVITY FOR WEEK 8

I. Given the following table:

Options A B C* D E
Upper Group 2 3 5 2 0
Lower Group 3 4 1 3 1

a. Interpret column A.
b. What is the 27% upper and lower groups equal to?
c. Give the n.
d. Give the N.
e. Solve for difficulty index.
f. Interpret the results using table of difficulty index.
g. Which is the correct option?
h. Which option is the least effective?
i. Which option is the most effective?
j. If the number in the upper group is 12 and in the lower group is also 12, how many
students are there taking the test?

II. A 25-item multiple choice test in Elementary Algebra with four options recorded below. Listed
were number of students in the lower and upper groups who answered A, B, C and D. Choice
D is the correct answer.
Item 10 A B C D*
Upper Group (27%) 4 5 2 9
Lower Group (27%) 6 4 5 5
 Based from the given table answer the following:
a. Give the difficulty index.
b. What is the level of difficulty?
c. Indicate the discrimination index.
d. What is the discrimination level?
e. Which group got more correct answer?
f. Which of the options is the most effective?
g. Which of the option(s) is/are ineffective?
h. Is item 10 a positive discrimination or a negative discrimination?
i. What can you say about options A and C? Are they effective distracters? How about
option B? What will you do about option B?

III. A test item was administered to 40 students in Statistics class. After checking, it came out
that item number 6 has the following results. Twenty-seven percent (27%) of the students
belong to the upper group and 27% belongs to the lower group. There are 5 students from the
upper group who got the item correctly and 9 from the lower group got the item right. (Make a
table following the conditions in the problem).

a. Compute the difficulty index.

b. What is the difficulty level?
c. Compute the discrimination index.
d. What is the discrimination level?
e. Is item number 6 a good item? Why?
f. What will you do with item number 6?