Assessment of the Assessment Tool: Analysis of Items in a Non-MCQ Mathematics Exam

Assessment is one of the vital steps in the teaching and learning process. The
reported action research examines the effectiveness of an assessment process and
inspects the validity of exam questions used for the assessment purpose. The
instructors of a college-level mathematics course studied questions used in the final
exams during the academic years 2013–2014 and 2014−2015. Using the data from
206 students, the researchers analyzed 54 exam questions with regard to the
complexity level, the difficulty coefficient and the discrimination coefficient.
Findings indicated that the complexity level correlated with the difficulty
coefficient for only one of three semesters. In addition, the correlation between the
discrimination coefficient and the difficulty coefficient was found to be statistically
significant in all three semesters. The results suggest that all three exams were
acceptable; however, further attention should be given to the complexity level of
questions used in mathematical tests and that moderate difficulty level questions
are better classifying students’ performance.