Effects of Item Arrangement, Knowledge of Arrangement Test Anxiety and Sex on Test Performance

Plake, Barbara S.; Ansorge, Charles J.; Parker, Claire; Lowry, S. R.

doi:10.1111/j.1745-3984.1982.tb00114.x

Cited by 34 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Further testing with future classes could be conducted to verify these results or to contradict them as an aberration inherent in this particular data set. As mentioned in the literature review, the results appear to contradict earlier findings by Plake et al in [7]. They concluded that males performed better and in fact out-performed women with items arranged from easy to hard questioning.…”

Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 64%

“…No significant results were found regarding the change of order, but the participants in this experiment were volunteers from a general psychology class, not mathematics majors nor students overly motivated to do well on a mathematics exam. Plake and Lowry continued their work along with Ansorge and Parker [7] and found that item arrangement was significant with motivated upper division students under "speeded" conditions. In particular they found that males, who were given an easy-to-hard ordering, performed the best.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…There is simply the suggestion that if test anxiety is low, then a student would have a better outcome on an exam. Plake et al [7] did conclude that males taking strictly timed exams performed better and in fact out-performed women when items were arranged from easy-to-hard. However, the population tested was comprised of 170 students from three introductory statistics classes.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Changing the Order of Mathematics Test Items: Helping or Hindering Student Performance?

Kennedy¹,

Butler²

2013

jhummath

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This paper recounts an experiment by a mathematics professor who primarily teaches mathematics majors. The main question explored is whether the ordering of the questions makes a difference as to how students perform in a test. More specifically we focus here on the following research questions: (1) Does arranging a math test with easy-to-hard items versus hard-to-easy items impact student performance? and (2) If so, does item order impact male and female mathematics majors and non-majors in unique ways? We examine data collected over multiple semesters with several different classes. We find that for most of the mathematics students who were examined, the ordering of the questions on a test did not impact performance. However, female majors performed better on classroom exams when the test was arranged with the more difficult questions presented first. Readers who are interested in teaching mathematics, educational psychology, or gender issues in the classroom may find our results intriguing.Evolution of a research project. A mathematics professor, I (Kristin Kennedy) often give two versions of the same exam to reduce the possibility of students copying from one another. Recently, I began to wonder if the order of the questions could affect a student's grade. I approached Allison Butler, professor of psychology, for her expertise. I of course wanted to ensure that both tests were fair, and Professor Butler was interested to see if there was any difference from a psychological point of view. This paper describes our joint inquiry into this matter.

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Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 64%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Changing the Order of Mathematics Test Items: Helping or Hindering Student Performance?

Kennedy¹,

Butler²

2013

jhummath

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“…In all cases, students admitted to cheating after they were caught with their Scantron 1 not matching the examination that they claimed to have taken. Though the findings from the present study disagree with other studies that found a random arrangement of test questions resulting in lower examination scores (Mollenkopf, 1950;Hambleton and Taub, 1974;Taub and Bell, 1975;Plake et al, 1982), it is in line with others (Munz and Smouse, 1968;Marso, 1970;Huck and Bowers, 1972;Kleinke, 1980;Plake, 1980;Plake et al, 1981;Klimko, 1984). Baldwin and Howard (1983) found that ''better'' students scored significantly lower on examinations that had random sequencing of multiple-choice questions than on examinations with the originally ordered format, while ''poorer'' students appeared not to be affected.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 60%

A case study on multiple‐choice testing in anatomical sciences

Golda

2011

Anatomical Sciences Ed

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Objective testing techniques, such as multiple-choice examinations, are a widely accepted method of assessment in gross anatomy. In order to deter cheating on these types of examinations, instructors often design several versions of an examination to distribute. These versions usually involve the rearrangement of questions and their corresponding answer choices. This study will determine whether the distribution of different versions of an examination affects student performance in a lower division anatomical science course. Students who receive the original version of an examination may be at an advantage over those that receive a shuffled version of an examination because of the systematic tendencies that go into examination construction. This study concludes that the shuffling of questions and answer choices to produce multiple versions of an examination does not affect student performance.

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“…Note that these tests contained items measuring ability, not achievement. In a later study reported by Plake, Ansorge, Parker, and Lowry (1982), E-H, spiral cyclic, and R item arrangements of a multiple choice mathematics test and four measures of anxiety were administered to university students. Male subjects were found to perform better than females on both the E-H and the R versions of the test.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Item Order on Achievement Test Scores and Students’ Perception of Test Difficulty

Laffitte

1984

Teaching of Psychology

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Students are undisturbed by different item orders in classroom tests, and perceive no difference in difficulty.Does order of test item difficulty have an effect on achievement test scores? On students' perceptions of test difficulty? Certainly there is no conclusive answer to either question. The studies reported in the last 25 years have yielded inconclusive and, sometimes, conflicting results.Most studies of the relationship between item difficulty, item order and total test score fail to show an effect. In an early study, Brenner (1964) provided the prototypic item arrangement by determining item difficulty levels and presenting students with easy-to-hard spiral cyclical item arrangements. The spiral cyclical arrangement involved subtests of 5 items arranged easy-to-hard sequentially presented with each subtest of increased difficulty. One year later, Plake, Thompson, and Lowry (1981) administered E-H, spiralcyclic, and R test forms to undergraduate students half of whom were informed about item arrangement. Three measures of anxiety were also administered to all subjects. Neither anxiety condition, knowledge of ordering, nor item arrangement had significant effects on test scores. Huck and Bowers (1972) generated a number of tests with identical items in differing orders and failed to find a sequence effect when hard items were preceded by easier ones.One of the earlier of the few studies that do show relationships between item order and test scores was reported by MacNichol (1960). Both E-H and R item arrangements yielded significantly higher total test scores than did the H-E ordering. In a study employing high school students as subjects, Hambleton and Traub (1974) ordered mathematics test items into E-H and H-E arrangements and found the first sequence to provide a significantly higher mean test score than the second. Also employing H-E, E-H, and R arrangements of mathematics test items, Towle and Merrill (1975) found college and university students to score significantly higher on the E-H arrangement than on the other two. More recently, Spies-Wood (1980) administered E-H and R versions of a test of numerical progressions to second year 212 mathematics students. Clearly, the E-H group scored significantly higher than the group given randomly ordered items. Note that these tests contained items measuring ability, not achievement. In a later study reported by Plake, Ansorge, Parker, and Lowry (1982), E-H, spiral cyclic, and R item arrangements of a multiple choice mathematics test and four measures of anxiety were administered to university students. Male subjects were found to perform better than females on both the E-H and the R versions of the test.A second dimension that allegedly influences total score is item content-order. It may seem logical to assume that test items presented in an order paralleling that of the original material from which the test items were drawn will provide more correct answers than random item order. However, this question has received less research attention than that of i...

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Effects of Item Arrangement, Knowledge of Arrangement Test Anxiety and Sex on Test Performance

Cited by 34 publications

References 21 publications

Changing the Order of Mathematics Test Items: Helping or Hindering Student Performance?

Changing the Order of Mathematics Test Items: Helping or Hindering Student Performance?

A case study on multiple‐choice testing in anatomical sciences

Effects of Item Order on Achievement Test Scores and Students’ Perception of Test Difficulty

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