Item analysis – the process of examining students’ response to each item

3 criteria in determining the desirability and undesirability of an item:

1. Difficulty index
2. Discrimination index
3. Distracter analysis
Difficulty Index- the number of students who are able to answer the item correctly divided by the
total number of students

t otal number of students withthe correct answer

¿
total number of students
Discrimination Index- the difference between the proportion of high performing students and low
performing students who got right

number of upper group getting theitem correct number of lower group getting the item correct
¿ −
Number of upper group Number of lower group

 Positively discriminating item-proportion of high scoring group is greater than that of the low scoring
group
 Negatively discriminating item-proportion of high scoring group is less than that of the low scoring group
 Zero Discriminating- proportion of high scoring group is equal to that of the low scoring group

Level of difficulty of an item

Index Range Difficulty level Interpretation

0.00-0.20 Very Difficult Reject
0.21-0.40 Difficult Revise
0.41-0.60 Moderately Difficult Retain
0.61-0.80 Easy Revise
0.81-1.00 Very Easy Reject

Distracter Analysis- refers to the process of evaluating the performance of incorrect answers vs the correct
answer for multiple choice items on a test.

Item No. Difficulty Discrimination Group Alternatives

(40) Index Index A B C D Omit
1 Upper 2 10 *5 3
Lower 2 0 12 6
2 Upper 2 *4 10 4
Lower 5 14 1 0