Title: Difficulty And Discriminatory Indices Of Developed Mathematics Achievement Test In Bayelsa State
Authors: AKEMIEYEFA Sunday, Okagbare Freedom (Ph.D) and Prof. J. N. Odili
Volume: 9
Issue: 2
Pages: 285-304
Publication Date: 2025/02/28
Abstract:
The study investigated the difficulty and discriminatory indices of the developed mathematics achievement test in Bayelsa State. Three (3) research questions directed the study. The instrumentation was used for the study. The population of the study is 19693 SSII students in Bayelsa State with 212 public schools. The sample for the study consists of 1026 students. The stratification process was used to arrive at the sample. The research instrument was designed by the researchers using the NECO, NABTEB, and WAEC curriculum guidelines. The items covered the following areas of the SS2 NECO, NABTEB, WAEC scheme of work, which are significant figures, decimal places, standard form and percentage error, fractions, ratios, simple and compound interest, profit and loss, indices, series and sequence, inequalities, algebraic process, quadratic equations, probabilities, and statistics. 100 objective test items were drawn based on the table of specifications. The research questions were answered using the Winstep software package of 3.75.0 to determine the difficulty and discrimination indices with respect to gender. The study revealed that the mathematics achievement test (MAT) for SS 2 students in Bayelsa State had difficulty indices that ranged from -0.25 logits to 0.76 logits. In line with the findings of the study, it was recommended, among others, that teachers in SSSs in Nigeria, generally in Bayelsa State in particular, should use the developed MAT to prepare students for continuous assessment and in mock examinations for adequate readiness for external certificate examinations.