Distractor analysis of test tasks as a method of improving their quality in higher educational institutions

Abstract

. It is believed that the main task facing testing is differentiating education seekers by the number of points scored while answering test tasks. However, nowadays the requirements for tests have expanded significantly. In addition to the main, controlling function, educational and developing ones are added. All these functions will only work effectively if a well-designed test is used that objectively reflects educational achievements. A quality test cannot be prepared the first time without preliminary test approbation, the purpose of which is to identify those tasks that do not fulfill the functions assigned to them. Methods of mathematical and statistical processing of test results, which are used in both classical and modern theory of tests, make it possible to identify those tasks, the content of which will require correction. Test tasks consist of correct answers and distractors. Therefore, the next step in the process of creating a quality test is to analyze the content of those distractors that attract the most and least attention of the tested people. This allows us to assess the attractiveness of distractors and change their content to a more efficient one. Such distractors should help to comprehend and generalize the educational material, identify gaps in its assimilation and facilitate the analysis of the results obtained. It is the Ignoring of the need for distractor analysis that is one of the reasons for the lack of quality tests. Another reason is the small number of publications on the results of distractor analysis.The purpose of this article is to show, with specific examples, how to carry out distractor analysis of test tasks to identify efficiently working distractors, as well as those distractors that most of the tested students perceive as clearly implausible and which must be replaced.