CHAINED EQUIPERCENTILE EQUATING OF SENIOR SCHOOL CERTIFICATE MULTIPLE-CHOICE TEST ITEMS IN CHEMISTRY

Abstract

This study investigated chained equipercentile equating of Senior School Certificate Multiple Choice Test Items in Chemistry conducted by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), the National Examinations Council (NECO) and National Business and Technical Examination Board (NABTEB). The study adopted the Non-Equivalent Groups Anchor Test design. A sample of 1,461 students was selected among Senior Secondary III students in the southwest geopolitical zone of Nigeria using a multi-stage sampling procedure. The 2017 WAEC, NECO and NABTEB SSCE multiple choice Chemistry papers were used as instruments for data collection. The WAEC, NECO and NABTEB papers yielded coefficients of content validity of 0.78, 0.75, and 0.76 and reliability of 0.81, 0.77, and 0.78 respectively. Data obtained were analysed using mean and percentile rank. Findings of the study showed that there is a difference in the respondents’ mean performance on the common items of WAEC, NECO, and NABTEB (µ???????? = 5.46,   µ???????? = 6.04,   µ????A = 7.36), and there are differences in the examinees’ performance in unique items across the test forms (µ????????= 17.32, µNE = 18.03, µNA = 20.48). Also, findings from this study showed that a chained equipercentile score of 20 in WAEC was equivalent to scores of 20 and 23 in NECO and NABTEB respectively, which corresponded to the percentile rank of 75. Based on these findings, the researcher recommended that test developers should ensure high quality of items used by each examining body and uniformity in standards of all examination bodies should be encouraged.