CHAPTER 4

ADMINISTERING, ANALYZING
AND IMPROVING TEST
Introduction
• One of the most important functions of a teacher
is to assess the performance of the students. This
is a very complicated task because you will
consider many activities such as the timing of
the assessment process, the format of the
assessment tools the duration of the assessment
procedures.
PACKAGING AND REPRODUCING TEST ITEMS
1. Put the items with the same format together.
2. Arrange the test items from easy to difficult.
3. Give proper spacing for each item for easy
reading.
4. Keep questions and options in the same page.
5. Place the illustrations near the options.
6. Check the key answer.
7. Check the direction of the test.
8. Provide space for name, date and score.
9. Proofread the test.
10. Reproduce the test.
ADMINISTERING THE EXAMINATION

• After constructing the test items and

putting them in order, the next step is
to administer the test to the students.
Below are the guidelines in
administering the test before, during
and after the test.
GUIDELINES BEFORE
ADMINSTERING
EXAMINATIONS
1. Try to induce positive test-taking attitude
2.inform the students about the purpose of the test
3. Give oral directions as early as possible
4.give test taking hints about guessing, skipping and
are strictly prohibited
5. Inform students about the length of time allowed
for the test
6. Tell the students how to signal or call your
attention if they have a question
7. Tell the students what to do with their papers
when they are done answering
8.tell the students when they are done with the test
9.rotate the method of distributing papers
10. Make sure the room is well lighted and has
comfortable temperature
11. Remind the students to put their names on their
papers
12.if the test has more than one page, have each
student check to see that all pages are done
GUIDELINE DURING THE
EXAMINATION
1. Do not give instruction or avoid talking during
examination.
2. Avoid giving hint.
3. Monitor to check student progress and discourage
cheating
4. Give time warning if student are not pacing their
work
5. Make a note of any question student ask during
the test.
6. Test papers must be collected uniformly to save
time and avoid misplaced
GUIDELINE AFTER THE
EXAMINATION
• After the examination the next activity a
teacher needs to do is to score the test
paper, record the result, and return the test
papers and lastly to discuss the test items in
the class so that you can analyse and
improve the test items for future use.
 GUIDELINES AFTER EXAMINATION
1. Grade the papers (add comments if you can), do
test analysis (see the
module on the test analysis) after scoring or before
returning papers to
students if at all possible.
2. If you are recording grades or scores, record them
in pencil in your class
record before returning the papers.
3. Return papers in a timely manner.
4. Discuss test items with the students.
Analyzing the Test
After administering and scoring the
test, the teacher should analyze the
quality of each item in the test.
Through this you can identify the item
that is good, item that needs
improvement or items to be removed
from the test.
 ITEM ANALYSIS
• A process of examining the students
response to individual item in the test.
* Consist of different procedures
* Use To indentify good and defective
test items
 USES OF ITEM ANALYSIS
* To provide basis for:

1. efficient class discussion of test result

2. Remedial works
3.general improvement of classroom
instructions
4.increased skill in test construction
5. Constructing test book
TYPES OF QUANTITIVE ITEM
ANALYSIS
1. Difficulty Index

• -It refers to the proportion of the number

of students in the upper and lower groups
• who answered an item correctly.
• -The larger the proportion, the more
students, who have learned the subject is
• measured by the item.
Level of Difficulty

• -To determine the level of difficulty of an

item, find first the difficulty index using
the
• formula and identify the level of difficulty
using the range given below.
 Level of Difficulty of an Item

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
 The higher the value the index
of difficulty, the easier the item is.
Hence, more students got the
correct answer and more students
mastered the content measured
by that item.
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.
• Also refers to the number of students in the upper
group who got an item correctly minus the
• number of students in the lower group who got an
item correctly. Divide the difference by
• either the number of the students in the upper
group or number of students in the lower group
• or get the higher number if they are not equal.
• This is the basis of measuring the
validity of an item. It can be
interpreted as an indication of the
extent to which overall knowledge of
the content are or mastery of the
skills is related to the response of an
item.
Types of Discrimination
Index
1. Positive Discrimination- more students in the upper
group got the item correctly than
those students in the lower group.

2. Negative Discrimination -more students in the

lower group got the item correctly than
the students in the upper group.

3. Zero Discrimination happens-number of students in

the upper group and lower group
who answer the test correctly are equal, hence, the test
item cannot distinguish the
students who performed in the overall test and the
students whose performance are
very poor.
Level of Discrimination

• Ebel and Frisbie (1986) as cited by Hetzel

(1997) recommended the use of Level of
Discrimination of an Item for easier
interpretation.
Index Range Discrimination Level

• 0.19 and below Poor item, should be eliminated or

need to be revised

• 0.20-0.29 Marginal item, needs more revision

• 0.30-0.39 Reasonably good item but possibly for

Improvement

• 0.40 and above Very good item

 STEP IN SOLVING DIFFICULTY
INDEX AND DISCRIMINATION
INDEX
• 1. Arrange the score from highest to lowest
• 2. Separate the score into upper part and
lower part
• 3. Count the number of those who chose
the alternatives in the upper and
• lower group for each item and record the
information using template
4.compute the value of the difficulty index and
discrimination index.

5. make an analysis for each item.

CHECKLIST FROR DISCRIMINATION
INDEX
• It is important to determine whether the
test item will be retained, revised or
rejected. Using the Discrimination Index
we can identify the non-performing
question items, just always remember they
seldom indicate what the problem is.
If the answers to question 1 and 2 are both YES, retain the item.
If the answers to question 1 and 2 are either YES or NO, revise the
item.
If the answers to question 1 and 2 are both NO, eliminate or reject
the item.
3. Analysis of Response Option

• it is very important to examine the performance

of each option in multiple- choice item. Through
this, you can determine whether the distracters
or incorrect options are effective or attractive to
those who do not know the correct answer. The
attractiveness of the incorrect options is
determined when more students in the lower
group than in the upper group choose it.
Distracter Analysis

1. Distracter
• -Distracter is the term used for incorrect options of the
multiple-choice type of test while the correct answer
represents the key.

• -It is very important for the test writer to know the distracters
are very effective or good distracters.

• -We can determine if the options are good or if the distracters

are effective using Quantitative Analysis.
• -Item Analysis can identify non-performing test items, but this
item seldom indicates the error or the problem in the item.

• These are the factors to be considered why students failed to

get the correct answer in the given question:
• a.) It is not taught to the class properly.
• b.) It is ambiguous.
• c.) The correct answer is not in the given options.
• d.) It has more than one correct answer.
• e. ) It contains grammatical clues to mislead the
student.
• f.) The student is not aware of the content.
• g.) The students were confused by the logic of the
question because it has double negatives.
• h.) The student failed to study the lesson.
2. 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 key.

3. Guessing Item
• - 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 time or in the text. B. The test item is difficult C. The question
is trivial.

4. Ambiguous Items
• *this happens when more students from the upper group choose
equally an incorrect option and the keyed answer
HOW TO IMPROVE TEST ITEMS?
Example 1.
A class is composed of 40 students, divide the class into two.
Option B is the correct answer. Based from the given data on
the table, as a teacher, what would you do with the test item?

1. Compute the Difficulty Index

• n= 10 + 4 = 14
• N = 40
• =
• =
• = 0.35 or 35%

2. Compute the Discrimination Index

• = 10
• =4
• D= 20
•
• = 0.30 or 30%
3. Make an analysis about the level of difficulty ,
discrimination and
distracter.
a. Only 35% of the examines got the answer correctly, hence the
item is
difficult
b. More student from the upper group got the answer correctly ,
hence it
has a positive discrimination
c. Retain options A,C, and E because most of the student who did
not
perform well in the overall examination selected it. Those options
attract most student from the lower group.

4. Conclusion: retain the test item but change option D, make

it more realistic
to make it effective for the upper and lower groups at least 5% of
the
examinees choose the incorrect option.