Abstract

Student achievement in cellular respiration at the Malaysian Matriculation level requires assessment across lower- and higher-order cognitive levels. This study developed and evaluated the content validity and reliability of the Cellular Respiration Achievement Test (UPRS) based on the Biology Course Curriculum Specifications for the Matriculation Programme. The final UPRS comprised 44 items, including 40 multiple-choice and four constructed-response items, with a total of 50 marks. Eight experts with extensive experience in teaching cellular respiration at university and matriculation levels evaluated its content validity. The S-CVI/Ave was 0.97, with corrected modified Kappa values ranging from 0.88 to 1.00, indicating high expert agreement. A pilot study involving 42 matriculation students was conducted to examine item characteristics and reliability. Initially, item difficulty indices ranged from 0.13 to 0.93, while discrimination indices ranged from 0.18 to 0.91. The items were subsequently revised to achieve a difficulty range of 0.30 < p < 0.80 and discrimination indices above 0.40. The revised UPRS demonstrated good reliability, with a KR-20 of 0.94 for the multiple-choice items and ICC values exceeding 0.90 for the constructed-response items. These findings provide preliminary evidence of the UPRS’s content validity and pilot reliability, although further validation with larger and more diverse samples is warranted.