Relationship Between Difficulty Index and Distracter Effectiveness in Best-Answer Stem Type Multiple Choice Question.

ABSTRACT

Background: Single best-answer multiple-choice questions (MCQs) consist of a question (the stem) two or more choices from which examinees must choose the correct option (the distracters) and one correct or best response (the key). Item analysis is the process of collecting, summarizing and using information from students’ responses to assess the quality of test items. Classical test theory for item analysis is most followed method to determine the reliability by calculating Difficulty Index (P score) and Discriminating Index (D score) and Distracter effectiveness Aim: This Study was aimed to calculate P scoreand distracter effectiveness; to find out relationship between P score and distracter effectiveness. Material and methods: In this Cross Sectional study 65 items responded by 120 Students of first year M.B.B.S were studied for Item Analysis. Difficulty Index, and Distracter Effectiveness were calculated for each item. Distracters were identified and classified as Functioning and Non- functioning distracter. Interrelationship between P Score, and Distracter Effectiveness was calculated and analyzed by Epinifo 7 software Result: We found Items with two functioning distracters were more difficult than that of others followed by items with three functioning distracters. Conclusion: Distractors affect the item difficulty index and by the means also affects quality of the assessment .