Comparative Analysis of Item Characteristics Of 2017 To 2021 NECO Technical Drawing Multiple-Choice Questions in Federal Capital Territory Abuja, Nigeria

This study focused a comparative analysis of item characteristics of 2017 to 2021 NECO Technical Drawing multiple-choice questions (MCQs) in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Nigeria. Four research objectives, research questions, and hypotheses guided the study. Data were obtained from NECO headquarters in Minna, Niger State. The population of the study comprised 6,258 candidates who registered and sat for the NECO Technical Drawing examination across 177 secondary schools in the Federal Capital Territory. A sample of 942 candidates consisting of 15% of the population was selected using a proportionate random sampling method. Lumen Ex Machina 4, 500 x 200 was used to analyze the data, while one way ANOVA from Microsoft Excel Data Analysis Tools tested the hypotheses at a 0.05 significance level. Results showed that the mean reliability of the examinations was 79%, with a standard deviation of 1.02. The mean item difficulty index was 0.48, with 156 (62.4%) items within the acceptable threshold. The mean discrimination index was 0.32, with 238 (95.2%) items showing average or above discrimination levels. NECO Technical Drawing had 996 distractors across 250 items, with a distractor efficiency of 76.4%. One item was found to be faulty. Findings revealed no significant differences in reliability, item difficulty, discrimination index, or distractor efficiency across the years studied. It was therefore recommended inter alia that schools should train teachers to carry out item analysis, teachers should make use of chief examiners' reports frequently to enable students to avoid pitfalls in subsequent examinations and that chief examiners' reports should also cover multiple choice questions since it does not currently cover that aspect.