STEPHENS COLLEGE OF NURSING

ASSIGNMENT ON

ITEM ANALYSIS

SUBJECT: NURSING EDUCATION

SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY:

MISS. VAISHALI GULERIA Ms. TAMANNA
VERMA. ASSISTANT PROFESSOR M.Sc NURSING 1ST YEAR
(Medical Surgical Nursing) SCoN.

SUBMITTED ON:
 INDEX
S. NO CONTENT PAGE NO.

1. Introduction 01

2. Definition 02

3. Purposes 02

4. Objectives 02

5. Functions 02 – 03

6. Types 03

7. Steps 03

8. Criteria 04

9. Interpretation 05 – 07

10. Summary 08

11. Conclusion 09

12. Bibliography 10
 ITEM ANALYSIS
INTRODUCTION:
It is statistical technique which is used for selecting and rejecting the items of a test on the
basis of their difficulty value and discriminative power. Item analysis technique helps in
selecting the best items for final draft of the test and poor items are rejected and some items
are modified. In addition, item analysis is valuable for increasing instructors skills in test
construction, and identifying specific areas of course content which need greater emphasis or
clarity. The procedure used to judge the quality of an item is called item analysis.

DEFINITION:
“Item analysis is a process which examines student responses to individual test items in order
to assess the quality of those items and of the test as a whole”.

PURPOSES:
1. To judge the worth or quality of a test.
2. Classification of students or candidates.
3. Selection of the candidates for the job.
4. Promotion and prognosis of the candidates or students.
5. Provide more diagnostic information on students.
6. Establishing individual differences.
7. Aids in subsequent test revisions.
8. Increase skill in test construction.
9. Bring about improvement in testing methods and techniques.
10. Make decisions about promotion of students to the next higher grade.

OBJECTIVES:
1. To select the appropriate items for the final draft and reject the poor items which
do not contribute in the functioning of the test. Some items are to be modified.
2. Item analysis obtains the difficulty values of all the items of preliminary draft of
the test.
3. It provides the discriminative power to differentiate to differentiate
between capable and less capable examinees of all the items.
4. The reliability and validity of test depends upon the characteristics of test. Both
these indexes are considered simultaneously in selecting and rejecting the items of
a test.
5. Item analysis is a cyclic technique. The modified items are tried out and their
items analysis is done again to obtain these indexes. The empirical evidences
are obtained for selecting the items for the final draft.

FUNCTIONS:
The main function of item analysis is to obtain the indexes of the items which indicate
its basic characteristics .The characteristics are
 Item difficulty value (D.V)
According to J.P. Gulliford, “The difficulty value of an item is defined as the
proportion or percentage of the examines who have answered correctly.’’
Example: If an items is not answered correctly by any of the examinee. None could
answer correctly it means the item is most difficult, the difficulty value is zero
percent, this item will not serve any purposes so such items are usually rejected.
DAVIS FORMULA: D.V. = P + P
2
Discrimination power (D.P)
According to Blood and Budd
“ Index of discrimination is that ability of an item on the basis of which the discrimination is
made between superiors and inferiors”.
EXAMPLE : If an item is not answered correctly by any of the examinee. None knows the
answer of the question neither superior nor inferiors. It means the items does not discriminate
between superiors and inferiors. There is no use to select such items for a test. Such items are
rejected.
DAVIS FORMULA: D.P = ( P – P )
Types of try out
After preparing the item, trying out items on a group of subjects is made to select good items.
Three items of tryout are there
1. Pre – tryout or preliminary tryout: Made to improve and modify language
difficulty and ambiguity of item. This tryout done on 5 – 10 students.
2. Proper tryout for item analysis: Done on a group of at least 40 students . Purposes
to select good items.
3. Final tryout for reliability and validity: Done on a large sample of 400 students.

Steps involved in item analysis

1. For each item count the number of students in each group who answered the item
correctly
2. For alternate response type of items, count the number of students in each group who
choose each alternative.
3. Award or score to each student. A practical, simple and rapid method is to perforate
on your answer sheet the boxes corresponding to the correct answer, placing the
perforated sheet on the students answer the raw score can be found almost
automatically.

A B C D
 Ranking in order of merit and identifying high and low groups
 Arrange the answer sheets from the highest score to the lowest score
 Make two groups ie, highest scores in one group , lowest scores in other group or
top and bottom halves.

Basic item analysis statistic

A number of items statistics are reported which aid evaluating the effectiveness of an item.
1. Item Difficulty Index
For each item compute the percentage of student who gets the item correct is called “item
difficulty index”.
D = R/N X 100

‘R’ is the no. of pupils who get the item right

‘N’ is the total no. people who tried them

2. Discriminative index
It refers to the degree showing how significantly a question discriminates between high
and low students It values from – 1 to + 1
D1 =2 x (H - L ) / N
‘H’ no. of correct responses from upper group
‘L’ no. of correct responses from upper group
‘N’ no. of students who tried them

Criteria for selection and rejection items

In the procedure of item analysis, the items are selected and rejected on the basis of
the following criteria.
 The items of positive discrimination indexes are selected for the final draft. The
negative discrimination and no discrimination are rejected or dropped.
 The items of high difficulty values and low difficulty values are also rejected.
 Both indexes of an item are considered simultaneously in selecting and rejecting
the items. The marginal items are to be modified and tryout is done to observe the
improved indexes.
 The extreme cases of the items, most difficult or most easy are rejected . The
negative discrimination and no discrimination are also rejected.
 Interpreting item Analysis
90% of item analysis is just common sense based on
 Identifying ambiguous items
 Equal distribution to all alternatives
 Alternatives are not working
 Distracters too attractive
 Questions not discriminating
 Negative discrimination
 Items too easy
 Items is mostly omitted

Methods of item Analysis

Recent review literature on items indicates that there are at least 23 different techniques
of item analysis. Following 2 methods are more popular

 Davis method of item analysis

It is the basic method of item analysis. It is used for the prognostic test for selecting and
rejecting items on the basis of difficulty value and discriminative power. Right responses are
considered in obtaining the indexes for the characteristics of an item. The proportion of right
responses on the items are considered for this purposes

 Stanley method of item analysis

Used for diagnostic test items. Wrong responses are considered in obtaining the indexes.
Wrong responses provide the cause of weakness of the learner. The proportions of
wrong responses on an item is considered for this purposes.
 STANLEY METHOD OF ITEM ANALYSIS

( N = 10 ) in each group

Item no. High group Low group P P D.V D.P

wrong wrong
responses responses
1. 1 5 .10 .50 .30 .40
2. 2 7 .20 .70 . 45 .50
3. 4 8 .40 .80 .60 .40
4. 8 10 .80 1.00 .90 .20
5. 0 2 .00 .20 .10 .20
6. 3 8 .30 .80 .55 .50
7. 7 4 .70 .40 .55 -.30
8. 4 8 .40 .80 .60 -.40
9. 8 8 .80 .80 .80 .00
10. 6 5 .60 .50 .55 .10

EXAMPLE: D.P = ( P - P )

D.P = ( .10 -.50 )

= .40
 SUMMARY
In this topic I have studied about the item analysis its introduction, definition, purposes,
objectives, functions, types, formula, steps, criteria of selection and rejection, interpretation,
methods of item analysis.
 CONCLUSION
It is statistical technique which is used for selecting and rejecting the items of a test on the
basis of their difficulty value and discriminative power. Item analysis technique helps in
selecting the best items for final draft of the test and poor items are rejected and some items
are modified. In addition, item analysis is valuable for increasing instructors skills in test
construction, and identifying specific areas of course content which need greater emphasis or
clarity. The procedure used to judge the quality of an item is called item analysis.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

BOOK

 Dr.Sharma.A, “Essential of Measurement in Education and Psychology

(Measurement and evaluation)”, (2004) ; Edition – 4th , Merrul: R.lall Book depot, pp
– 168-170-1191-195
 K.P Neerja, “Text book of nursing Education” (2003)edition- 1st , New Delhi:
Jaypee Brothers, pp – 416 - 417