Comparison between students’ perception and examination validity, reliability and items difficulty: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Introduction: Students' perception of an examination reflects their feelings, while its item analysis refers to a statistical analysis of students’ responses to examination items. The study was conducted to compare the student’s perception towards examination to its item analysis. Material and methods: This is a cross-sectional study conducted at the college of medicine, from January to April 2019. The study used a structured questionnaire and standardized item analysis of students’ examinations. All students who had registered for semester two (2018-2019) were included in the study. Exclusion criteria included students who refused to participate in the study or those who did not fill the questionnaire. Result:  KR-20 of the examination was 0.906.  The average difficulty index of the examination was 69.4. The response rate of the questionnaire was 88.9% (40/45). Students considered the examination to be easy (70.4%). A significant correlation was reported between student perceptions towards examination difficulty and standard examination difficulty. Discussion: Student perceptions support the evidence of examination validity.  Students were found able to estimate examination difficulty. Keywords: Student perception, Item analysis, Assessment, validity, reliability.