The Effect of Changing the Position of the Strong Distractor, when Wrong Options were Removed, on Difficulty Index and Discrimination Index of the Multiple Choice Questions in Physics

Abstract

The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of changing the position of the strong distractor, when the technique of removing the most wrong options was used, on students’ achievement and some psychological attributes (difficulty index and discrimination index) of the test item. To achieve the above aim, a multiple-choice test in physics consisting of (24) items was constructed. Two versions of the test were designed to be identical except for the position of the strong distractor. The test was validated through a panel of judges and the reliability was estimated by Kuder-Richardson 20 method giving a value of (0.76). The sample consisted of (133) female 10th grade students chosen randomly from two public schools in Al-Seeb sector in the Governorate of Muscat – Sultanate of Oman. (67) students answered version one, whereas (66) students answered version two. The results showed that there were non-statistically significant differences in the mean scores of the students’ achievement in two test versions. Furthermore, there was non-statistically significant differences in the mean scores of the difficulty index and the discrimination index of the test items between the two versions. A number of recommendations and suggestions were proposed in the light of the above results.