IALSS Variables

Question

In IALSS, there are variables PLEV1, PLEV2, PLEV3, PLEV4, PLEV5. I understand the literacy scale used for these variables - as explained in 4.1 of the user guide - but what I can't seem to dig out is what exactly these 5 different variables are - different questions/problems? Why are there 5?

Answer

The various questions show the level of success that they had on the questions of that difficulty level - the questionnaire asked questions of five different levels of difficulty. In the data file, if they have a 5 in PLEV1, they scored between 376 and 500 (highest) on the questions of difficulty level 1, while a 3 in PLEV4 would mean that the scored between 301 and 350 on questions of difficulty level 4.

IDLS shows the range of scores for the various questions (and not just level 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5, as in in the codebook).