Abstract:
Aim: Assessment is a very important component of the medical course curriculum. Item analysis is
the process of collecting, summarizing, and using information from student’s responses to assess the
quality of multiple-choice questions (MCQs). Difficulty index (P) and discrimination index (D) are the
parameters used to evaluate the standard of MCQs. The aim of the study was to assess quality of
MCQs. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted in the Department of Pathology. One
hundred and twenty, 2nd year MBBS students took the MCQs test comprising 40 questions. There
was no negative marking and evaluation was done out of 40 marks, and 50% score was the passing
mark. Postvalidation of the paper was done by item analysis. Each item was analyzed for difficulty
index, discrimination index, and distractor effectiveness. The relationship between them for each
item was determined by Pearson correlation analysis using SPSS 20.0. Results: Difficulty index of
34 (85%) items was in the acceptable range (P = 30–70%), 2 (5%) item was too easy (P >70%), and
4 (10%) items were too difficult (P <30%). Discrimination index of 24 (60%) items was excellent
(D >0.4), 4 (10%) items were good (D =0.3–0.39), 6 (15%) items were acceptable (D =0.2–0.29),
and 6 (15%) items were poor (D < 0–0.19). A total 40 items had 120 distractors. Amongst these,
6 (5%) were nonfunctional distracters, 114 (95%) were functional distracters. The discrimination
index exhibited positive correlation with difficulty index (r = 0.563, P = 0.010, significant at 0.01
level [two-tailed]). The maximum discrimination (D = 0.5–0.6) was observed in acceptable range
(P = 30–70%). Conclusion: In this study, the majority of items fulfilled the criteria of acceptable
difficulty and good discrimination. Moderately easy/difficult had the maximal discriminative ability.
Very difficult item displayed poor discrimination, but the very easy item had high discrimination
index, indicating a faulty item, or incorrect keys. The results of this study would initiate a change in
the way MCQ test items are selected for any examination, and there should be proper assessment
strategy as part of the curriculum development.
Machine summary:
Item analysis of multiple choice questions: Assessing an assessment tool in medical students Chandrika Rao, Kishan Prasad H.
Item analysis is the process of collecting, summarizing, and using information from student’s responses to assess the quality of multiple-choice questions (MCQs).
Difficulty index (P) and discrimination index (D) are the parameters used to evaluate the standard of MCQs. The aim of the study was to assess quality of MCQs. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted in the Department of Pathology.
Key words: Difficulty index, discrimination index, distractor effectiveness, item analysis, multiplechoice questions Introduction Multiple choice questions (MCQs) are frequently used to assess students in different educational streams for objectivity and wide reach of coverage in less time.
The relationship between the difficulty index and discrimination index values for all items was determined using Pearson correlation analysis and using SPSS 20.
Figure 1 shows, out of a total 40 items, difficulty indices of 5% MCQ items were easy (P > 70%), about 10% were )view the image of this page)5% Easy 10% Difficult An item contains a stem and four options including one correct (key) and three incorrect (distractor) alternatives.
On the basis of NFDs in an item, 85% Acceptable Figure 1: Difficulty index of each multiple choice question item difficult (P < 30%) and the remaining 85% of the items were within an acceptable range (30–70%).
Item and test analysis to identify quality multiple choice questions (MCQs) from an Assessment of medical students of Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
Analysis of one-best MCQs: The difficulty index, discrimination index and distractor efficiency.
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