tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3362150186602010918.post2194507460765523542..comments2024-02-04T12:24:28.815-07:00Comments on Why Aren't You Studying?: The Exam Statistics: The Point Biserial CorrelationKarsten A. Loepelmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05444048964547117014noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3362150186602010918.post-9378097620400447362011-08-03T15:03:52.306-06:002011-08-03T15:03:52.306-06:00@Anonymous: It pains me to see it when students th...@Anonymous: It pains me to see it when students think themselves out of the right answer. Unfortunately, I don't have any advice about avoiding "over-thinking".Karsten A. Loepelmannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05444048964547117014noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3362150186602010918.post-75471107829834695732011-08-03T02:16:05.311-06:002011-08-03T02:16:05.311-06:00More reasons why a better student might miss a que...More reasons why a better student might miss a question:<br /><br />1. If an answer is too easy or obvious, a better student might subconsciously shy away from it thinking there MUST be more to the question than that.<br /><br />2. A better student might remember a minor symptom of a disease (for example) and fall for that one, ignoring the more major one.<br /><br />In a way though it's a "rich get richer" phenomenon, that the better students end up with yet higher scores because their performance is used as an index to measure everyone else's. Which could kinda be unfair.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3362150186602010918.post-44833762059140868842010-11-05T13:26:29.142-06:002010-11-05T13:26:29.142-06:00I try.
I can almost feel my IQ drop whenever I re...I try.<br /><br />I can almost feel my IQ drop whenever I read LOLanything.Anastasiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14295576691711467656noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3362150186602010918.post-64660064475979901012010-11-04T13:23:06.185-06:002010-11-04T13:23:06.185-06:00@Anastasia: That's great--psychometrics rocks!...@Anastasia: That's great--psychometrics rocks!<br /><br />Looking over my three courses that use multiple-choice questions, about 10% of questions have rpb < 0.30. Out of those, however, most are really close to 0.30. Less than 1% of questions have a negative rpb. And I'm working on fixing all of them.<br /><br />"Why?" is difficult to say. But in answering students' questions about test items, I have some ideas. Sometimes, students may overthink a question--especially better students who are expecting a trick question when there is none.<br /><br />Sometimes, students have taken other courses and have read about a study that may contradict what I taught in class (or what's in the textbook I use). Again, this would be a greater problem for better students, who actually remember stuff they learned in other courses.<br /><br />And sometimes, the question itself is poorly constructed, confusing, or plain wrong. (I remember that <i>you</i> were pretty good at identifying sucky questions!)<br /><br />LOLcats is nothing. I can waste a whole <i>day</i> at <a href="http://lolpresident.com/" rel="nofollow">LOL president</a>.Karsten A. Loepelmannhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05444048964547117014noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3362150186602010918.post-74999278923564073842010-11-03T23:51:50.252-06:002010-11-03T23:51:50.252-06:00Oh God, not the LOLcats...!
I understood all of t...Oh God, not the LOLcats...!<br /><br />I understood all of that. I must be very smrt...or maybe it's because I just read about this for a psychometrics class.<br /><br />How often does an rpb lower than 0.30 occur? What would some of the reasons for it be?Anastasiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14295576691711467656noreply@blogger.com