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BAB I INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Learning is an important process that helps student to fulfill society’s demand for educated workers. Learning process is aided by a teacher. A good
teacher is one who knows what to teach, how to teach as well as how to evaluate. The teacher has to evaluate student progress on the mastery of
academic skills which are being taught in a certain period of time. And the result of evaluation will provide information about the quality of the teacher’s
instruction and the student’s abilities. Evaluation is a very important aspect in teaching and learning
activities. Evaluation plays an important role in some activities, especially in terms of education. The information gained through this evaluation will be
very useful to make improvement in the future. Evaluation in English language teaching is so important. It can tell the
teacher the effectiveness of instruction, the student’s progress, strengths, and weakness. In the teaching learning process, evaluation can be done in the
form of achievement test. The teachers, who make achievement test, should know and master the principles and the steps that must be done in making the
test. This test can be a teacher-made test or standardized test. By this knowledge teachers will get a clear describing about systematic frame work
of evaluation. Evaluation is defined as, “ The systematic gathering of information for
the purpose of making decisions.”
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Lyle F. Bahman, fundamental Consideration in language Testing, Toronto : Oxpord University Press, 1990, p. 20
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The more reliable and relevant the information, the better the likely hood of making the correct decision connecting with students and the
instruction. Evaluation is an integral part of instructional program. It contributes
directly to the teaching and learning process. The evaluation result is useful to improve students learning by providing information to overcome learning
difficulties, to asses and to improve instruction by judging the appropriateness and attainability of instructional objectives and also the effectiveness of
instructional method.
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There are many methods for collecting information for evaluation purposes. One of them is by using a test.
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A test in plain words is “ A method of measuring a person’s ability or knowledge in a given domain.”
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Tests are often used for pedagogical purposes, either as a means of motivating students to study or as a means of
reviewing material taught.
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The writer considers that the test is one of the instuments which can be used for gathering the information about the strengths and the weaknesses
in acception the lesson by the students. As a means to measure students’ achievement in learning process, a
test should be constructed well. So that it was able to distinguish between the students who have studied well and those who have not.
Based on the reality above, the writer would like to analyze the difficulty level of summative test items tested at second level students of
SMP Muhammdiyah 29 Sawangan, Depok.
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Wilmar Tinambunan, Evaluation of Students Achievement, Jakarta : depdikbud, 1998, p. 3
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Fred genesse and John A. Usphur, Classroom Based Evaluation, melboutne : Cambridge University Press, 1996, p. 140
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H. Douglass, Teaching by Principles, An Interactive Approacch Pedagogy, Sn Fransisco Addison Wesley Longman, 2001, p. 384
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Lyle f. Bahman, Op. Cit., p. 22
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B. Limitation and Formulation of the Problem
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