Optimal discrimination index and discrimination efficiency for essay questions.

Recommended guidelines for discrimination index of multiple choice questions are often indiscriminately applied to essay type questions also. Optimal discrimination index under normality condition for essay question is independently derived. Satisfactory region for discrimination index of essay questions with passing mark at 50% of the total is between 0.12 and 0.31 instead of 0.40 or more in the case for multiple-choice questions. Optimal discrimination index for essay question is shown to increase proportional to the range of scores. Discrimination efficiency as the ratio of the observed discrimination index over the optimal discrimination index is defined. Recommended guidelines for discrimination index of essay questions are provided.

Related Organizations

Chinese University of Hong Kong
China (People's Republic of)

Keywords

Models, Statistical, Psychometrics, Writing, Discriminant Analysis, Humans, Educational Measurement, Guideline Adherence, Achievement, Statistical Distributions

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