Low ability students may not show maximum performance in a sequential achievement test. Thus, test score interpretation for this subsample may be invalid, Regine Aseburg (Kiel) and Andreas Frey (Jena) found. The study appeared in Psychological Test and Assessment Modeling 2013 (1), 92-104.
The authors "examined the relationship between ability-difficulty fit and test-taking effort or boredom/daydreaming, respectively, in a typical large-scale assessment of student achievement. Ability-difficulty fit varies over a broad range and shows a negative mean. For approximately two-thirds of the sample, the average difficulty of the items the students worked on exceeds their individual ability. One-third of the students have an individual ability exceeding the average difficulty of processed items. Thus, on average, the test was too difficult for the students, which means not maxing the test information out given the available testing time."
Psychological Test and Assessment Modeling 2023-1
