Psychometric Properties of the Multiple Choice Mathematics Items of Junior Secondary School Certificate Examination in Ekiti State

The study examined the psychometric properties of the multiple choice Mathematics items of Junior Secondary School Certificate Examination in Ekiti State. Specifically, the study examined: the validity and reliability of the items of Junior Secondary School Certificate Mathematics Examination; the difficulty index of the items; and the discriminating power of the items. The design used in this study was ex-post facto-design. The data for this study were responses of the students to multiple-choice mathematics items of the junior secondary school certificate examination of Ekiti state. The population comprised of all the Junior Secondary School III students in Ekiti state that wrote 2022/2023 Junior Secondary School Certificate Examinations of Ekiti State. The sample for the stud consisted of 600 Junior Secondary School III students from public and private schools in Ekiti State, the sample was selected using multi stage sampling procedure. The instrument used for this study was the Ekiti State Ministry of Education JSCE multiple-choice objective test items in Mathematics for 2022/2023 session consisting of fifty (50) items and the students’ Optical Mark Reading – OMR (answer sheets). The items were believed to have been developed, moderated, validated, and used by Ekiti State Ministry of Education for JSSCE. The fifty multiple choice JSCE III mathematics items of 2022/2023 session were assumed to have been validated and moderated by the Ekiti State Ministry of Education before they were administered to the respondent. The data collected was analyzed using difficulty index and discriminating power. The Kr-20 was used to determine the internal consistency of the instrument. Based on the findings of the study, the items were moderately valid and internally consistent. However, the items maintained different difficulty level, and discriminating power. It is recommended that JSCE multiple-choice objective test items in Mathematics be subjected to psychometric analysis before administering it on the students.