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.
When we prepare test items we aim to have average
difficulty

Item Analysis will help us in selecting the items that

are of average difficulty.
ITEM DIFFICULTY
Item Difficulty = 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%
U-L Index Method (Santos, 2007)
Table of equivalents in interpreting the difficulty
index

Range of
Difficulty Index Interpretation Action
.00 to .25 Difficult Revise or discard
.26 to .75 Right Difficulty Retain
.76 & above Easy Revise or discard
Index of discrimination
Index of discrimination tells whether it can
discriminate between those who know and those who
do not know the answer.
Index of discrimination = DU – DL
Example: Obtain the index of discrimination of an item
if the upper 25% of the class had a difficulty index of
0.60 (60% of the upper 25% got the correct answer)
while the lower 25% of the class had a difficulty index
of 0.20.
Index of discrimination = .60-.20=.40
Discrimination Index
Index Range Interpretation Action

-1.0 to -.50 Can discriminate Discard

but item is questionable

-.55 to 0.45 Non-discriminating Revise

0.46 to 1.0 Discriminating item Include

EXAMPLE
Consider a multiple choice type of test of which the
following data were obtained:
Item
A B C D
1 0 40 20 20 Total
0 15 5 0 Upper 25%
0 5 10 5 Lower 25%
Computation of Difficulty Index &
Index of Discrimination
Difficulty Index = no. of students getting
correct response/total
= 40/100 = .40 or 40%
within range of a good item
DU=no. of students in upper 25% with correct response/no
of students in the upper 25% = 15/20 = .75 or 75%
DL=no. of students in lower 25% with correct response/no of
students in the lower 25% = 5/20 = .25 or 25%

Discrimination Index = DU-DL =.75-.25= .50

has a good discriminating power
INTERPRETATION
Maximum discrimination is usually found on the 50
percent level of difficulty

0.00 – 0.20 = Very difficult

0.21 – 0.80 = Moderately difficult
0.81 - 1.00 = Very easy