Analyzing exams: Are multiple-choice~questions hard for the reasons we think?

Exam questions are typically written to differentiate between students who can and cannot apply the concepts they are learning.~Students who score highly on an exam,~in general, do better on individual questions than those who do not.~On certain questions, however, the gap is quite large. In this talk we present an overview of a project at the University of Washington to identify and examine such questions~in introductory algebra- and calculus-based physics courses.~We hope to identify specific concepts and skills that seem to be particularly difficult for low-performing students and to develop interventions that can target those areas.