Journal of English Language Teaching

A comparative study on the effect of Difficulty Index and Discrimination Index in Formative Assessment (MCQs) in Technical English Course

Dr Saranraj L

Assistant Professor of English, Mepco Schlenk Engineering College, Sivakasi, Tamil Nadu

Keywords: Formative Assessment, Difficulty Index, Discrimination Index, Technical Students, Range

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Abstract

This study perceived the impact of Difficulty Index and Discrimination Index in Formative Assessment (MCQs) in Technical English Course and was carried out amongst 99 first year technical students from Tamil Nadu. Moreover, it is a comparative study thus two groups were formed Group-A (54 students) and Group-B (45 students). On the whole, 30 Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) were chosen from Technical English course for this study. The result showed that majority of the items were acceptable in discrimination index in both groups (A&B), on the other hand, difficulty index was relatively tough to group B than group A students. On the whole, difficulty and discrimination index were inevitable to validate the question papers in recent days, because it helped to identify inappropriate questions and modify poor questions. 

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