- Note: “Topic/Area” summarises the subject matter. “Differential Item Functioning” describes whether there was a sex or ethnicity difference, the type of curve observed, and gives a description of the trend. For “plot,” probability indicates the probability of answering the item correctly. Score indicates the candidate’s performance overall. Typically, candidates who score well on the exam should be more likely to answer the item correctly, but this is not always the case. The solid “reference” line refers to males, or ethnically white UK graduates, depending on whether a sex or ethnicity difference was found. The dashed line refers to females or ethnically non-white UK graduates. See Fig. 1 for more details about curve types. “Question” is the text of the question as seen by candidates. “Options” lists the five available options. The keyed answer is underlined
- [Note for publication – high resolution versions of each plot are included as “Additional file 1”]
