European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

Background: The most reliable format of objective evaluation is multiple choice questions (MCQs) which ideally should be drawn from a question bank of valid and tested items/MCQs.  Distractor effectiveness is one of the most important tool to assess the quality and validity of a MCQ. Items with known functional distractors form an important part of assessment in MCQ test paper.
Objectives: The objectives of the study were to find out distractor effectiveness for each item in a physiology MCQ test paper.
Materials and methods: Physiology MCQ test paper comprising of 40 items, with answer key and answer papers of 198 first MBBS students were obtained. Choice marked for each item by each student and his scores were entered in Microsoft Excel. Students were ranked & top 1/3rd and bottom 1/3rd were chosen as high achiever and low achiever group respectively. Distractor effectiveness for each item was determined using appropriate formula.
Results: Out of 120 distractors, 97 (80.83%) were functional distractors. 16 items had in all 23 (19.17%) non-functional distractors. 24 items had all functional distractors,10 items had 1 non-functional distractor, 5 items had 2 non-functional distractors and 1 item had 3 non-functional distractors. All other distractors for each item were acceptable.
Conclusion: Valid items with functional distractors can be incorporated in item bank. Items with non-functional distractors should be revised.