Subject Difficulty Index in PPSM, FST, UKM: 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 Academic Sessions

Achievement of students in learning institutions is often used to measure the performance of students. Verification on a student's performance depends on the examination results of a number of courses or subjects taken during the course of his/her study in the institution. Some courses are deemed to be difficult if the student scored low marks or grades and vice versa. Basically, the overall examination results serve as the major role in determining student's performance and excellence. Further, the level of difficulty for each subject can also be determined from the examination results. This paper aims to determine the subject difficulty index (SDI) of the Semesters I and II courses for the 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 academic sessions in the School of Mathematical Sciences (PPSM), Faculty of Science and Technology (FST), UniversitiKebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). All courses for these sessions are arranged based on their level of difficulty, by taking into account the four main criteria, namely the meanCGPA of the course, the percentage of students obtained a minimum grade of B, the percentage of students failed (grade C–to D) and the percentage of students failedcompletely (grade E). These four main criteria are combined together to form the SDI.