Psychometric Properties and Third Year High School Final Exams Capabilities in the Selection of Candidates for Admission to Undergraduate Periods

High school final exams are one of the most decisive tools for scientific assessment of students. Given the importance of this examinations, carried out systematic research on the quality and functionality of their questions is necessary to separate volunteers.
Aim: The aim of this study is to determine the psychometric properties and capabilities of the final exam questions in the field of experimental biology and Persian literature in the selection of candidates for admission to undergraduate courses.
The population, all of the questions of the third year high school final exams string in June 2011. For determining the psychometric properties of these questions, performance of 600 students, selected randomly, in aforementioned lessons in the school districts of the city of Khorramabad were used.
Findings: Estimated reliability coefficient in biology and Persian literature was determined by Cronbach alpha, (0.97, 0.96). According to CTT, the average coefficient of difficulty and discrimination in Persian literature and biology test were (0.65, 0.57) and (0.50, 0.65) respectively. In analyzing the IRT; two-parameter model fitted to the data revealed more. Also, in IRT models, the average difficulty and discrimination of questions for Persian literature and biology courses were (-0.69, 1.03) and (-0.09, 0.96) respectively. The most informant rate for two tests of Persian literature and biology, belongs to levels of ability which are (-0.7, 0.1) respectively, the agreement between the CTT and IRT in terms of discrimination parameter the two courses, were (%98.36, %93.59) respectively.
Due to the important decisions based on high stakes tests, implications of final examinations in the selection of candidates were discussed.