Understanding performance in test taking: The role of question difficulty order

Standardized assessments are widely used to determine access educational resources with important consequences for later economic outcomes in life and evaluate compare systems. However, many design features of the tests themselves may lead psychological reactions influencing performance. In particular, level difficulty earlier questions a test affect performance questions. How should we order according their such that offers an accurate assessment taker's aptitudes knowledge? We conduct field experiment about 19,000 participants collaboration online teaching platform where randomly assign different orders find ordering from easiest most difficult yields lowest probability abandon test, as well highest number correct answers. obtain similar results when exploiting random variation across booklets Programme International Student Assessment (PISA) years 2009, 2012, 2015, which provides additional external validity experiment. conclude question has policy implications optimal It additionally have ranking candidates, evaluation comparison institutions