Difficulty Index — the percentage of

the student who got the item right.

Can also be interpreted as how easy
or how difficult an item is.

Discrimination index — separates the

bright students from the challenge
ones.
Item Difficulty u number of students
with correct answer/ total number of
students

Example: What is the item difficulty

index of an item if 25 students are
unable to answer it correctly while
75 answered it correctly?
Item Difficulty • 75/100 • .75 or 75%
 Table of equivalents in
interpreting
the difficulty index

.00 to .20 — Very Difficult

.21 to .80 — Moderately
Difficult
When we prepare test items we aim
to have average difficulty

the items that are of average

difficulty.
Difficulty Index = no. of students getting
correct response/total
= 40/100 = .40 or 40%

DU—no. of students in upper 25o/owith correct

response/no of students in the upper 25% =
15/
= .75 or 75% 0
DL= no. of students in lower 25% with correct
response/no of students in the lower 25% =
5/20

Discrimination Index - DU-DL —.75-.25 - .

50
The process of examining the
student s responses to each item.

The need to look into the difficulty

and discriminating ability of the item
as well as the effectiveness of the
each alternative.