If our students learned what we taught, we would never need to assses.

It is only through assessment

that we can discover whether the instructional activities in which we engage our students resulted in
the intended learning. Assessment really is the bridge between teaching and learning.

Dylan willian

What topics students are struggling with?

Is a particular question as difficult, complex or rigorous as you intend it to be?

Do students really know the answer or just applying test-taking strategies to eliminate the wrong
answers?

Which items should be eliminated or revised before use in subsequent test administrations?

Does the item do an excellent job of separating students who know the content from those who may
merely guess the correct answer?

Item analysis is a process that examines student

responses to individual test items (questions) in order to assess the quality of
those items and the test as a whole.

Items that are too easy or too difficult

Items that failed to show difference between skilled an unskilled examinees.
Items that are scored incorrectly or mis-keyed

Upper-Lower
(U-L) index method

(a) difficulty index

(b) discrimination index
(c) distractor or option-response analysis.

The steps
1. Score the test papers and arrange the total scores from the highest to
lowest.
2. Sort the top and bottom 27% of the papers.

27% is used because it has shown that this value will maximize differences in normal distributions
while providing enough cases for analysis.
- Wiersa and Jurs (1990)

Ex. The following scored are arranged from HIGHEST to LOWEST.

No. of students: 50 No. of Test Questions/Items: 50
Upper 27% = 13.5 or 14 students Lower 27% = 13.4 or 14 students
(UPPER GROUP) (LOWER GROUP)

No. of Students Score

1 50
2 50
3 49
4 48
5 48
6 46
7 45
8 44
9 43
 10 42

3. Tally the correct answers to each item by each student/test taker

in the upper 27% group.

Item Number Upper 27%

N = 14
1 14
2 13
4 14

4.Repeat Step 3 but this time, consider the lower 27%.

Item Number Upper 27% Lower 27%

N = 14 N = 14
1 14 14
2 13 11
3 14 11
4 14 7

5. Get the percentage of the upper group that obtained the correct
answer and call this U.

Formula:

Upper 27% = no. of students who got the item correct

Total number of students belonging to the upper 27%

Upper 27% = 14 =1
14

Example:

Upper 27%
Item Number
14 %
1 14 1
2 13 0.93
3 14 1
4 14 1

6. Repeat Step 5 but this time consider the lower group and call this L.

Formula:

Lower 27% = no. of students who got the item correct

Total number of students belonging to the lower 27%

Lower 27% = 14 =1
14

Example:
 Upper 27% Lower 27%
Item Number
14 % 14 %
1 14 1 14 1
2 13 0.93 11 0.79
3 14 1 11 0.79
4 14 1 7 0.5

7. Get the average percentage of U and L.

difficulty index is determined in terms of the proportion of students in

the upper 27% and lower 27% group who answered a test item correctly.

Formula:

Difficulty Index = % of the upper group who got the item right + % of the lower group who got the item right
2

Difficulty Index = % U + % L
2

Example:

Difficulty Index = % U + % L
2

=1+1
2

=2
2

=1

Upper 27% Lower 27%

Item Number Difficulty Index
14 % 14 %
1 14 1 14 1 1
2 13 0.93 11 0.79 0.86
3 14 1 11 0.79 0.90
4 14 1 7 0.5 0.85

Index Range for Level of Difficulty

Range of Difficulty Index Description Decision

0.00 – 0.20 Very Difficult Reject
0.21 – 0.40 Difficulty Revise
0.41 – 0.60 Moderately Difficult Retain
0.61 – 0.80 Easy Revise
0.81 – 1.00 Very Easy Reject
 Upper 27% Lower 27%
Item Number Difficulty Index Description Decision
14 % 14 %
1 14 1 14 1 1 Very Easy Reject
2 13 0.93 11 0.79 0.86 Very Easy Reject
3 14 1 11 0.79 0.90 Very Easy Reject
4 14 1 7 0.5 0.85 Very Easy Reject

8. Get the difference between U and L percentages

discrimination index is the power of the test item to discriminate those

who scored high (in the upper 27%) and those who scored low (in the lower 27%) on
the total test.

Formula:

Discrimination Index = % U – % L

Example:

Upper 27% Lower 27%

Item Number Discrimination Index
14 % 14 %
1 14 1 14 1 0
2 13 0.93 11 0.79 0.14
3 14 1 11 0.79 0.21
4 14 1 7 0.5 0.5

Index Range for Level of Discrimination

Index Range Discrimination Level
0.19 and below Poor item should be eliminated or need to be revised
0.20-0.29 The marginal item needs some revision
0.30-0.39 Reasonably good item but possibly for improvement
0.40 and above Very good item

Guide to Making Decision for the Retention, Revision, and Rejection of Test Items

Difficulty Index Discrimination Index Remarks Decision

(0.41-0.60) (0.40 and above)

acceptable acceptable good item retain

acceptable not acceptable fair revise

Not acceptable acceptable fair revise

Not acceptable Not acceptable poor reject