TITLE:
The Effect of Scrambling Test Item on Students’ Performance and Difficulty Level of MCQs Test in a College of Medicine, KKU
AUTHORS:
Ismail Satti, Bahaeldin Hassan, Abdulaziz Alamri, Muhammad Abid Khan, Ayyub Patel
KEYWORDS:
MCQs Test, Scrambling, Version, Student’s Score, Difficulty Index
JOURNAL NAME:
Creative Education,
Vol.10 No.8,
August
12,
2019
ABSTRACT: Background: Multiple Choice Tests (MCQs) are commonly used assessment tool in medical schools, which is delivered to our
student in four versions (A, B, C and D) to avoid cheating. The aim of this study
was to investigate the effect of scrambling test items on students’ performance
and the difficulty level of each version, so as to decide on continuing randomization
of test items or keeping it without randomization. Methods: A prospective,
cross-sectional study was conducted, the
participants were the 5th year undergraduate
medical students during their major course of obstetrics and gynecology. Three
tests where items were randomized are delivered to the
students. After correction, the marks obtained by the candidates and difficulty
index of each version were entered into the Statistical Package for Social
Sciences (SPSS) version 20 and comparison amongst these four versions was carried out through
analysis of variance (ANOVA). A p-value
of Results: No significant difference was found in the mean difficulty index for
different versions in each test and there are no statistically different
results when we compared version A mean students’ scores to other versions (B, C and D) after applying
ANOVA analysis (F = 1.14, p = 0.42), (F
= 0.75, p = 0.69) and (F = 1.29, p = 0.34); (F = 0.84, p = 0.62), (F = 0.81, p = 0.64) and (F = 0.62, p = 0.79); (F = 0.62, p = 0.79), (F = 0.35, p = 0.95) and (F = 0.83, p = 0.64) for test 1, 2 and 3
respectively. Conclusions: Our study revealed that randomization
of MCQs test item into versions to avoid cheating does not affect student
performance or the difficulty level of the exam.