The construction of revised objective final examination in statistics

Abstract

During the past three years an examination constructed by Dr. C. B. Read, head of the mathematics department of the University of Wichita, has been given to 597 students as the final examination in beginning statistics courses based on Dr. Read's "Manual of Statistics". There are two beginning statistics courses being offered – a freshman and a junior course. Consequently, the majority of the students in the study were either freshman or juniors in college. Both courses are based on the same manual although freshmen receive three hours college credit while the juniors receive only two hours college credit. The three years or eight terms included a total of fifteen classes which were taught by at least four different instructors. It is the purpose of this study to construct a new examination having two alternate forms by (1) making a statistical analysis of the original examination question by question and replacing the poorest questions by similar questions taken from hourly examinations, which were found from the statistical standpoint to be better questions and (2) sealing the accepted questions of the original and hourly examinations according to the per cent of the students answering them correctly.