Lesson 3

 Item Analysis: Difficulty Index and

Discrimination Index

The teacher normally prepares a draft of the test. Such a draft is

subjected to item analysis and validation in order to ensure that the final version
of the test would be useful and functional.

First, the teacher tries out the draft test to a group of students of similar
characteristics as the intended test takers (try-out phase). From the try-out
group, each item will be analyzed in terms of its ability to discriminate between
those who know and those who do not know and also its level of difficulty (item
analysis phase). The item analysis will provide information that will allow the
teacher to decide whether to revise or replace an item (item revision phase).
Then, finally, the final draft of the test is subjected to validation if the intent is
to make use of the test as a standard test for the particular unit or grading
period.

Item analysis refers to the process of examining the student’s response to

each item in the test. There are two characteristics of an item. These are
desirable and undesirable characteristics. An item that has desirable
characteristics can then be retained for subsequent use and that with
undesirable characteristics is either to be revised or rejected. The desirability
and undesirability of an item is determined by the three important criteria
namely, difficulty of the item, discriminating power of the item, and the
measures of attractiveness.

To ensure the average difficulty, a difficulty index of the item analysis is

to be retained, to be revised, or to be rejected.

Difficulty Index

Difficulty index refers to the proportion of the number of students in the

upper and lower groups who answered an item correctly. Therefore, difficulty
index of an item may be obtained by adding the proportion in the upper and
lower groups who got the item right and divide it by 2. The formula for finding
the index of difficulty can be represented mathematically as follows:
Pu+PL
Df = 2

where: Df — index of difficulty

PU — proportion of students in the upper group who answered the item
correctly
PL — proportion of students in the lower group who answered the
item correctly

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 The ideal test should contain items whose difficulty indices are from 0.41
to 0.60, but for most teacher-made test, 0.30 to 0.70 would be acceptable. Too
easy and too difficult items should not be included in the final test.

The table below shows the index of difficulty of an item. This serves as a
guide in classifying the item from the easiest to the most difficult ones.

Index of Difficulty of an Item

Index Range Difficulty Level
0.81 – 1.00 Very easy
0.61 – 0.80 Easy
0.41 – 0.60 Average
0.21 – 0.40 Difficult
0 – 0.20 Very difficult

Another criterion that indicates the acceptability of an item is the

discriminating power of an item. Usually, a good item properly discriminates
bright students from the poor ones. To determine this, a discrimination index is
computed.

Discrimination Index

The discrimination index refers to the proportion of the students in the

upper group who got an item right minus the proportion of students in the lower
group who got an item right. The formula is as follows:
Ds = PU – PL

where: Ds — index of discrimination

PU — proportion of students in the upper group who answered the item
correctly
PL — proportion of students in the lower group who answered the
item correctly

A maximum positive discriminating power of an item is indicated by an

index of 1.00 and is obtained when all the students in the upper group answered
correctly and no one in the lower group did. A zero discriminating power is
obtained when an equal number of students in both groups got the item right. A
negative discriminating power is obtained when more students in the lower
group got the item right than in the upper group.

The index of discrimination of an item will guide the teacher in knowing

which of the item is very discriminating or questionable. Items that are very
discriminating and questionable should be discarded in the final draft of the test.

The table in the next page shows the interpretation of the computed value

for Ds.

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 Index of Discrimination of an Item
Index Range Discrimination Level
0.41 – 1.00 Very discriminating
0.31 – 0.40 Discriminating
0.21 – 0.30 Moderately discriminating
0.11 – 0.20 Not discriminating
0.00 – 0.10 Questionable item

Measures of Attractiveness

To measure the attractiveness of the incorrect option or distractors in a

multiple-choice test, we count the number of students who selected the
incorrect option in both the upper and lower groups. The incorrect options
should attract less of the upper group than the lower group.

Categorization of an Item

For the purpose of categorization of an item, the interaction of the

difficulty and discriminating levels are utilized. The table below presents the 25
possibilities of the items either to be retained, revised or rejected in the final
draft of the test.

Evaluation Code for an Analysis of an Item

Difficulty Level Discrimination Level Item Category Remarks

Very Difficult Questionable Very Poor Rejected
Not Discriminating Poor Rejected
Moderately Discriminating Poor Rejected
Discriminating Poor Rejected
Very Discriminating Very Poor Rejected
Difficult Questionable Very Poor Rejected
Not Discriminating Poor Rejected
Moderately Discriminating Fair Retained
Discriminating Good Retained
Very Discriminating Poor Rejected
Moderate Questionable Poor Rejected
Not Discriminating Reasonably Good Revised
Moderately Discriminating Good Retained
Discriminating Very Good Retained
Very Discriminating Poor Rejected
Easy Questionable Very Poor Rejected
Not Discriminating Poor Rejected
Moderately Discriminating Reasonably Good Revised
Discriminating Reasonably Good Revised
Very Discriminating Poor Rejected
Very Easy Questionable Very Poor Rejected
Not Discriminating Poor Rejected
Moderately Discriminating Poor Rejected
Discriminating Poor Rejected
Very Discriminating Very poor Rejected

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Simplified Item Analysis Procedures

There are several item analysis procedures that may be applied. The
simplified item analysis procedures are simple but effective. The steps are
outlined below.

1. Compute 30% of N, where N is the total number of students who took the
test (or test papers) and round off the results to the nearest whole
number. This number is represented by n.

Example:
You have 50 students who took the exam. You get the 30% of 50.

n = 30% x N
= .30 x 50
= 15.00

2. Arrange the test results in order, placing the highest score on top and
continuing sequencing until the paper having the lowest score is placed
at the bottom.

3. Count off the n test results from the top of the arranged scores. This
constitutes the upper group.

Based on the given example, you get the top 15 highest scores.

4. Count off the n test results from the bottom of the arranged scores. This
constitutes the lower group.

Based on the given example, you get the top 15 lowest scores.

5. Set aside the middle results.

6. Record the results on the item card or on a separate sheet. Consider all
the items.

Example:
Item # 1 Option A* B C D E
Upper Group (15) 3 3 3 2 4
Lower Group (15) 1 3 5 1 5

Out of 15 students in the upper group, 3 answered option A in item

no. 1, which is the correct answer. 3 students answered option B, 3
answered option C, 2 answered option D, and 4 answered option E.

On the other hand, out of 15 students in the lower group, 1

answered option A, 3 answered option B, 5 answered option C, 1 answered
option D, and 5 answered option E.

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 7. Determine the proportion in the upper group (PU) who answered each item
correctly by dividing the number of correct answers for the upper group
by n.

Example:
In test item no. 1, there were 3 students in the upper group who
got the correct answer. Based on the given example, the value of n is 15.
Therefore, you divide 3 by 15.
PU = 3/15
= 0.2

8. Determine also the proportion in the lower group (PL) who answered each
item correctly by dividing the number of correct answers for the lower
group by n.

Example:
In test item no. 1, there was only 1 student in the lower group who
got the correct answer. Therefore, you divide 1 by 15.

PL = 1/15
= 0.066 or 0.07

9. Find the index of difficulty for every item in the test.

Example:
Pu+PL
Df = 2

= 0.2 + 0.07
2
= 0.135 or 0.14

Based on the computed value of Df, test item no. 1 is very difficult.

10. Compute the index of discrimination of each item in the test.

Example:

Ds = PU – PL

= 0.2 – 0.07

= 0.13

Based on the computed value of Ds, test item no. 1 is not discriminating.
Using the evaluation code, the item category of item no. 1 is poor. Therefore,
it must be rejected.

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 11. Determine the effectiveness of the distractors (incorrect options) by using
the adjectives good, fair, and poor. A good distractor will attract more
students from the lower group than the upper group.

Example:
Option A* B C D E
Item no. 1 Upper Group (15) 3 3 3 2 4
Lower Group (15) 1 3 5 1 5
Legend: * correct answer

Option A – Good
Option B – Fair
Option C – Good
Option D – Poor
Option E – Good

Based on the information above, options C and E are good options because
more students from the lower group are attracted. Option B is fair because both
the upper and lower groups have the same number of frequency. Option D is
considered poor because it attracted more students in the upper group while
option A, the correct answer, is good because more students from the upper
group chose it.

Sample Test Results for Item Analysis

Teachers can use item analysis to check the qualities of the test results.
The test results of item analysis should be interpreted with care and caution.
Consider the test results of 50 students in Assessment of Learning. Following the
simplified item analysis procedure, the results for the first ten items are
presented in the table below.

Item no. Upper Lower PU PL Df Ds Item Remarks

30% 30% Category
1 3 1 0.20 0.07 0.13 0.13 P Rejected
2 10 7 0.67 0.47 0.57 0.20 F Retained
3 12 6 0.80 0.40 0.60 0.40 VG Retained
4 10 4 0.67 0.27 0.47 0.40 VG Retained
5 11 13 0.73 0.87 0.80 -0.13 VP Rejected
6 14 5 0.93 0.33 0.63 0.60 P Rejected
7 9 3 0.60 0.20 0.40 0.40 G Retained
8 13 11 0.87 0.73 0.80 0.13 P Rejected
9 8 3 0.53 0.20 0.37 0.33 G Retained
10 13 8 0.87 0.53 0.70 0.33 RG Revised
Legend:
RG = Reasonably Good G = Good
VG = Very Good F = Fair
VP = Very Poor P = Poor

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 As shown in the table, item no. 6 has difficulty and discrimination indices
of 0.63 and 0.60, respectively. Using the table for the evaluation code, item no.
6 should be rejected. But, there will be an instance when that kind of item can
be revised. This happens if it is the only item left to test a very important
concept. On the other hand, item no. 3 has a difficulty index of 0.60 and a
discriminating index of 0.40. This item should be retained because it has very
good indices. However, there will be an instance when that kind of item may be
rejected. This happens if there are already sufficient items to test that
particular concept.

 Learning Activity

Answer the following problems. Show your solutions.

1. Out of 40 students who took a test in Educ 105, 10 students in the upper
group got the correct response and only 6 students in the lower group got
the correct response for item no. 5. Determine:

a. proportion in the upper group (PU)

b. proportion in the lower group (PL)
c. difficulty index (Df)
d. discrimination index (Ds)
e. item category
f. remarks

Write your answers in the table below. Fill in also the other spaces with
the appropriate information based on the given problem.

Item no. Upper Lower PU PL Df Ds Item Remarks

30% 30% Category

2. A 30-item multiple-choice type of test was administered to 40 students in

Educational Research. Record shows that there are 11 students in the
upper group and only 7 students in the lower group who got the right
answer in item no. 7. Determine:

a. proportion in the upper group (PU)

b. proportion in the lower group (PL)
c. difficulty index (Df)
d. discrimination index (Ds)
e. item category
f. remarks

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 Write your answers in the table below. Fill in also the other spaces with
the appropriate information based on the given problem.

Item no. Upper Lower PU PL Df Ds Item Remarks

30% 30% Category

3. A 20-item multiple-choice test with 5 options was conducted to 30

students in Assessment in Learning. Determine the effectiveness of the
distractors for items no. 15 and 16. Explain your answers briefly. Below
are the records of the responses of the upper and the lower groups.

Option A B C D* E
Item no. 15 Upper Group (15) 5 8 7 6 5
Lower Group (15) 7 5 7 3 4
Option A – _________________
Option B – _________________
Option C – _________________
Option D – _________________
Option E – _________________
Explanation:

Option A B C* D E
Item no. 16 Upper Group (15) 9 5 4 5 3
Lower Group (15) 7 5 7 8 2

Option A – _________________
Option B – _________________
Option C – _________________
Option D – _________________
Option E – _________________
Explanation:

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