ITEM ANALYSIS
What is item analysis?
• Item analysis is a process which examines student responses to individual test items
(questions) in order to assess the quality of those items and of the test as a whole.
• Item analysis is especially valuable in improving items which will be used again in later tests,
but it can also be used to eliminate ambiguous or misleading items in a single test
administration.
• In addition, item analysis is valuable for increasing instructors’ skills in test construction, and
it is an important tool to uphold test effectiveness and fairness.
• Item analysis is likely something educators do both consciously and unconsciously on a
regular basis.
• In fact, grading literally involves studying student responses and the pattern of student errors,
whether to a particular question or particular types of questions.
• But when the process is formalized, item analysis becomes a scientific method through which
tests can be improved, and academic integrity upheld.
Need of the Item Analysis: Following are the needs of a test:
• To select the candidates
• To classify the candidates
• To provide the ranking to the candidates
• To promote the candidates
• To frame the statements about the future behavior of the candidates
• To establish the individual differences among the candidates
To achieve the above objectives a test need to have the appropriate items so that the test can
differentiate the individuals in different categories like superior, average and inferior. Therefore
for selecting the appropriate items for the final form of the test following may be the objectives
of the item analysis:
