Difficulty and discriminability of introductory psychology test items

We analyzed multiple-choice questions provided in test banks for introducto ry psychology textbooks. In Study 1, we found that about 70% of students re sponded correctly to a given item, and there was a significant but inconsis tent difference in difficulty across chapter topics. In Study 2, a single c lass of introductory psychology students took comprehensive exams of random ly selected test items that varied in estimated difficulty. As before, chap ter topic had a significant, yet inconsistent effect, but test items had se veral desirable properties compared to Study 1. These data allow several re commendations for instructors who want to improve the characteristics of th e multiple-choice exams they use.