LESSON 10

ITEM ANALYSIS
 Item Analysis

Item analysis is a process of examining

the student’ response to individual item
in the test. With item analysis, we can
identify which of the given are good
and which are defective test items
 Item Analysis:
Types

1. Quantitative Item Analysis

2. Qualitative Item Analysis
Quantitative Item Analysis

1. Difficulty Index
2. Discrimination Index
3. Response Options Analysis
1
2
3
4
5
6
Upper
Group
7
8
9
10
11
12
13

Lower
14
15
16
17
18
Group
19
 1. Difficulty Index

It refers to the proportion of the

number of students in the upper
and lower groups who answered an
item correctly. Also called as
facility index.
 Difficulty Index: Formula

Dif. I.=
Dif. I. = Difficulty Index
n = Number of the students selecting item
correctly in the upper and lower group
N = Total number of students who answered the
test
 Example

Option A B* C D
Upper Group 3 10 4 3
Lower Group 4 4 8 4
Based on the table, what is the difficulty index?

Dif.I.= = = or
 Level of Difficulty

Index Range Difficulty Level

0.00 – 0.20 Very Difficult
0.21 – 0.40 Difficult
0.41 – 0.60 Average/ Moderately Difficult
0.61 – 0.80 Easy
0.81 – 1.00 Very Easy
 Decision

Index Range Difficulty Level

0.00 – 0.20 Very Difficult Revise/reject
0.21 – 0.40 Difficult
0.41 – 0.60 Moderately Difficult Retain
0.61 – 0.80 Easy
0.81 – 1.00 Very Easy Revise/reject
 2. Discrimination Index

The power of the item to discriminate

the students between those who
scored high and those who scored low
in the overall test.
 Discrimination Index: Types

1. Positive discrimination
It happens when more students in the
upper group got the item correctly than
those students in the lower group.

Implication: Teaching could be effective

 Discrimination Index: Types

2. Negative discrimination
It occurs when more students in the
lower group got the item correctly than
the students in the upper group.
Implication: Test item could be ambiguous,
Miskeyed item
 Discrimination Index: Types

3. Zero discrimination
It happens when there is an equal
number of students in the upper group
and in the lower who answer the test
correctly.
 Discrimination Index: Formula

Dis. I.=
Dis. I. = Discrimination index
= number of the students selecting the correct answer in the upper
group
= number of the students selecting the correct answer in the lower
group
D = number of students in either the lower group or upper group.
 Example

Option A B* C D
Upper Group 3 10 4 3
Lower Group 4 4 8 4
Based on the table, what is the diiscrimination index?

Dis. I.= = =
=
 Level of Discrimination

Index Range Decision

0.19 and below Reject test item
0.20 – 0.29 Revise test item
0.30 – 0.39 Revise test item
0.40 and above Retain test item
 Decision Making

Type Range
Difficulty 19% and
Index below/81%
and above
Discrimination 19% and
Index below (including
negative)
Decision Reject
 Decision Making

Type Range
Difficulty 20% to
Index 80%
Discrimination 20% to
Index 39%
Decision Revise
 Decision Making

Type Range
Difficulty 20% to
Index 80%
Discrimination 40% and
Index above
Decision Retain
 How to Improve the Test Item: Example 1

Option A B* C D
Upper Group 3 10 4 3
Lower Group 4 4 8 4

1. Dif. I. = 35% = Difficult

2. Dis. I. = 30% = Positive Discrimination
3. Distracters = Retain A, C & D because more
students from lower group selected it.
4. Conclusion: This is a good item so, we have to
retain the item.
 How to Improve the Test Item: Example 2

Option A B C D*
Upper Group 3 7 0 5
Lower Group 4 2 0 9
1. Dif. I. = = =0.467 or 46.7%=Moderately Difficult
2. Dis. I. ===-0.267% or -26.7%=Negative discrimination
3. Distracters = Retain A, revise B & C
4. Conclusion: We have to reject the item.
 3. Analysis of Response Options

It is very important to examine the

performance of each option in a
multiple-choice item.
 3. Analysis of Response Options

The attractiveness of the incorrect

options is determined when more
students in the lower group than in
the upper group choose it.
Qualitative Item Analysis

A process in which the teacher or

expert carefully proofreads the test
before it is administered.
DISTRACTER
ANALYSIS
 Distracter

There are factors to be considered why students failed to

get the correct answer in the given question .
1. It is not taught in the class properly.
2. It is ambiguous.
3. The correct answer is not in the given options.
4. It has more than one correct answer.
5. It contains grammatical clues to mislead the students.
6. The student failed to study the lesson.
 Miskeyed Item

The test item is a potential miskey if there

are more students from the upper group
who choose the incorrect options than the
correct answer.
 Example

Option A B* C D
Upper Group 3 10 4 13
Lower Group 4 4 8 4
 Guessing Item

Students from the upper group have equal spread of

choices among the given alternatives. Students from
the upper group guess their answers because of the
following reasons:
a. The content of the test is not discussed in the
class or in the text.
b. The test item is very difficult.
c. The question is trivial.
 Example

Option A B* C D
Upper Group 5 5 6 5
Lower Group 4 4 8 4
 Ambiguous Item

This happens when more students from the

upper group choose equally an incorrect
option and the keyed answer.
 Example

Option A B* C D
Upper Group 3 10 4 10
Lower Group 4 4 8 4