Does question type, content and gender influence student understanding as demonstrated in an entrance examination?

The research inquires into the effectiveness of the two predominant forms of questions that are used on the State University Entrance examination for chemistry. These are multiple-choice questions and short-answer questions. This research examines the style of question but also the content type examined (recall and application questions) along with gender differences. The research involved an analysis of previous State University Examinations as well as class trial testing students of both genders on tests designed by the researcher. Rasch analysis of the class trial data was performed allowing comparison of question type and content performance as well as differential analysis (DIF) comparing the male and female performance on different subsets of question types. Analyses of released data from the final examinations were used to provide a comparative context to the trial tests.