Comparison in the Final Examination Questions Paper by Means of Difficulty and Discrimination Indices

Norhelyna Razali; Nuryazmin Ahmat Zainuri; Haliza Othman; Noraishikin Zulkarnain; Che Nuru Saniyyati Che Mohamad  Shukri

doi:10.56225/ijgoia.v2i1.164

Authors

Norhelyna Razali Centre of Research in Engineering Education and Built Environment, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia
Nuryazmin Ahmat Zainuri Centre of Research in Engineering Education and Built Environment, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia
Haliza Othman Centre of Research in Engineering Education and Built Environment, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia
Noraishikin Zulkarnain Centre for Integrated Systems Engineering and Advanced Technologies, Selangor, Malaysia
Che Nuru Saniyyati Che Mohamad Shukri Centre of Research in Engineering Education and Built Environment, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.56225/ijgoia.v2i1.164

Keywords:

examination, course learning outcome, difficulty index, discrimination index

Abstract

Examination is one of the important elements in measuring the student achievement and to determine whether the course learning outcome is achieved or not. The best exam paper is the paper that can evaluate the students’ achievement and thus satisfy the course learning outcome. The purpose of this study is to compare the examination papers and identify whether the course learning outcome is achieved or not based on the performance of students in the examinations. The sample is stratified according to year 1 until 4 and according to the program. The students are selected from three academic years 2015/2016, 2016/2017 and 2017/2018. The data is obtained from the marks of their mid-semester and final exams. Difficulty and discrimination indices is evaluated for each item in the exam paper. The research findings found that the ideal question for the mid-semester exam is from the session 2017/2018 with difficulty and discrimination indices range from 0.4 to 0.8. While the ideal question for final semester exam is from session 2016/2017 with difficulty index in range 0.4-0.6 and higher discrimination index as compared to other sessions. As a result, the student performance for 2017/2018 session has increased significantly in the overall assessment with 13.0% obtained grade A compared to 11.1% in 2016/2017 and only 4.9% in 2015/2016. The failure rate has also reduced at only 11.4% in 2017/2018 compared to 32.1% in 2015/2016 and 11.9% in 2016/2017.

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