The findings of previous research into the compatibility of stakeholders’ perceptions with statistical estimations of item difficulty are not seemingly consistent. Furthermore, most research shows that teachers’ estimation of item difficulty is not reliable since they tend to overestimate the difficulty of easy items and underestimate the difficulty of difficult items. Therefore, the present study aims to analyze a high stakes test in terms of heuristic (test takers’ standpoint) and statistical difficulty (CTT and IRT) and investigate the extent to which the findings from the two perspectives converge. Results indicate that, 1) the whole test along with its sub-tests is difficult which might lead to test invalidity; 2) the respondents’ ratings of the total test in terms of difficulty level are almost convergent with the difficulty values indicated by IRT and CTT, except for the two subtests where students underestimated the difficulty values, and 3) CTT difficulty estimates are convergent with IRT difficulty estimates. Therefore, it can be concluded that students’ perceptions of item difficulty might be a better estimate of test difficulty and a combination of test takers’ perceptions and statistical difficulty might provide a better picture of item difficulty in assessment contexts.

中文翻译：

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关于伊朗高额赌注测试的统计和启发式难度估计

先前关于利益相关者的看法与项目难度的统计估计的兼容性的研究结果似乎不一致。此外，大多数研究表明，教师对项目难度的估计并不可靠，因为他们倾向于高估易用项目的难度而低估了困难项目的难度。因此，本研究旨在从启发式（应试者的立场）和统计难度（CTT和IRT）的角度分析高风险测试，并从两个角度研究结果的融合程度。结果表明：1）整个测试及其子测试很困难，可能导致测试无效；2）除了两个子测验中学生低估了难度值外，受访者对总测验的难度等级评分几乎与IRT和CTT指示的难度值趋同，并且3）CTT难度估算与IRT趋同难度估算。因此，可以得出结论，学生对项目难度的感知可能是对考试难度的更好估计，而应试者的感知与统计难度的结合可能会在评估环境中更好地反映项目难度。