Influence of Order of Difficulty in a Multiple-Choice Type of Test on the Students’ Performance in Statistics and Probability

This study investigates the influence of the order of difficulty in a multiple-choice type of test on the students’ performance in Statistics and Probability at Mindanao Mission Academy. It aimed to find out the significant difference on the students’ test score in Statistics and Probability between Easy to Hard and Hard to Easy order of difficulty, to find out the significant difference on the students’ test score in Statistics and Probability between Easy to Hard and Random order of difficulty, and to find out the significant difference in the students’ test scores in Statistics and Probability between Hard to Easy and Random order of difficulty. Three kinds of multiple-choice tests were made, first a test arranged in Easy to Hard order of difficulty, second a test arranged in Hard to Easy order of difficulty, and lastly, a test arranged in a Random order of difficulty. The test consists of the same questions, the three types of test differs only by the order of difficulty. The study proves that students score better when a multiple-choice test is arranged logically from Easy to Hard than when arranged Randomly or from Hard to Easy order of difficulty with p-values 0.000041 and 0.0166193 respectively. However, this study also infers that randomly organized multiple-choice tests and logically arranged from Hard to Easy order of difficulty have no significant difference in students’ test scores with a p-value of 0.1046002.