Prof. M.

NIRMALA JYOTHI
Director
Directorate of Distance Education

SRI PADMAVATHI MAHILA VISVAVIDYALAYAM

(WOMEN’S UNIVERSITY)

TIRUPATI – 517 502 (A.P.)

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 Item Analysis
• Item analysis is a technique to analyze the items qualitatively
{interms of their contents form) and quantitatively {interms of
their statistical characteristics).
Purpose:
• To analyze each item in the process of standardization to retain
only those items that suit the purpose and rationale of the test
being constructed.

• It is an integral part of both reliability & validity of the test /

tool.

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 Objectives of Item Analysis:
 To select appropriate items for the final draft &
reject the poor items which do not contribute in
the functioning of the test.
 To classify items - difficult, moderate, easy
items (Achievement Tests).
 To obtain discriminative power of each item.
 To obtain information regarding the functioning
of distracters (in case of prognostic tests).
 To provide basis for the modifications.
 Need for Item Analysis:
Item Analysis is a statistical technique used for
selecting & rejecting the items of a test on the basis
of their Difficulty Value & Discriminative Power.
 Classification of subjects.
 Selection of the candidates for the job.
 Assigning grades to students.
 Prognosis & promotions of candidates.
 Establishing individual differences.
 For verification of hypothesis in Research.
 Discriminative Power (D.P)
The term Discriminative Power of an item is used for item reliability
& item validity.
Discriminative Power is the ability of an item to discriminative the
high ability group from the low ability group.

Illustration:
If an item is answered correctly by all the subjects, it means that the item
is answered 6y high as well as low groups. No
discrimination. Discriminative power is Zero. No use - reject the item.
If an item is not answered correctly by any of the subject - also
no discrimination. Discriminative Power is zero. No use- reject the
item.
If an item is answered correctly by the superiors & is not answered
correctly by inferiors - then the item has high discrimination.
 Index of Discrimination:
Index of Discrimination is that 'ability of an item on
the basis of which the discrimination is made between
superiors and inferiors' Blood & Buold (1972).
Bean defined Discriminative Power as the degree to
which the single item separates the superior from the
inferior individuals in the trait or group of traits being
measured.
Marshall & Hales (1972) defined Discriminative
Power as ‘the extent to which success or failure on the
item indicates the possession of the trait or achievement
being measured’.
 Discriminative Power is Two Types:
• Item Reliability & Item Validity which depends upon the
criterion of High & Low groups.
• Item Reliability- the degree to which an tern distinguishes
between high & low groups, they are high & low groups on
the basis of the same test scores.
• Discriminative Power - point bi-serial correlation between an
item score and the total test scores multiplied by the item
Standard Deviation.
• Item Validity- the degree to which an item differentiate
between high & low groups, they are high & low on the basis
of some other criterion test score {other than the test
prepared).
• Discriminative Power - point bi-serial correlation between an
item score and the criterion scores multiplied by the item
standard Deviation.
 Difficulty Value (D.V):
Difficulty value is the proportion right
responses on an item.
Difficulty value is important for 2 basic
reasons :
• Difficulty value directly influences the shape
of total test scores and their standard deviation.
• Difficulty value influences the reliability of the
test scores which is statistically defined as the
self correlation of the test.
 Procedure of Item-Analysis:
• Conduct pilot study and score them as per the
scoring key.
• Arrange the scores either in ascending or
descending order.
• Take top 27% and bottom 27% of the subjects and
label them as high and low groups respectively.
• Take each group separately and do item wise
response for each subject.
• Calculate Mean and Standard Deviation or count the
No.of subjects in each of the response pattern for
each item separately for high group & low groups.
• Calculate Discriminative Power as per the data
(a). Discriminative Power =
High Group Mean - Low Group Mean
(b). Apply ‘t’ test
(c). Apply ‘Z’ test
(d). Apply Chi Square test
• Discriminative Power should always be in positive value
• It ranges from ‘0 to 1'
• select the items with Discriminative Power value 0.35 &
above
• reject the items with Negative Discriminative Power
values.