Examining the Revised Placement Test Using the Rasch Model

Abstract

This article examines the placement test for a Japanese language course that was revised in 2012 using the Rasch model. Using data from the placement test that was used before 2012 and the one that was revised in 2012, we investigated how the revision affected the test results. The participants were 487 international students who were enrolled in a Japanese program at a university in Japan. The results indicate that the revised test was more difficult than the old one, which was the intent of the revision. At the same time, the results show that taking out the rubi from each kanji did not change the difficulty level of the questions. Furthermore, the results suggest that it was necessary to increase the number of difficult items in the revised test because the test was still easy for the examinees, and also to revise the multiple-choice items that did not work well.