The Importance of Item Analysis

C. Previous Studies

There are some studies about the difficulty level and the discriminating power which had conducted by several researchers. The first, Andrian Dwi Prayoga did an analysis about the difficulty level of English summative test for the second grade of Junior High School at odd semester 20102011 at SMPN 13 South Tangerang. This study was included in quantitative research because the researcher used some numerical data which were analyzed statistically. Also, this study was categorized as descriptive analysis because it was intended to describe the objective condition about the difficulty level of the English summative test. In this study, the researcher only took 93 students as a sample. The findings of this study were moderate items had the highest percentages with 66,7 followed by difficult items with 20 and easy items with 13.3 . Overall, the difficulty level of the test was moderate level with 0.50 index of difficulty it means that the test had a good difficulty level. 57 The second, Hikmah Lestari did an item analysis about the discriminating power of English summative test at the second year of SMPN 87 Pondok Pinang. This study was categorized as a descriptive analysis because it was intended to describe the objective condition about the discriminating power by analyzing the quality of English summative test items in discriminating students’ achievement. This study was considered as a quantitative research because the researcher used some numerical data which was analyzed statistically. The researcher only took 60 students as an ordinal sampling in her study. The findings of this study was the English summative test which was tested at second grade of SMPN 87 Pondok Pinang had 57 Andrian Dwi Prayoga, An Analysis on the Difficulty Level of English Summative Test for Second Grade of Junior High School at Odd Semester 20102011 of SMPN 13 South Tangerang A Case Study at the Second Grade of SMPN 13 South Tangerang, Research Paper at State Islamic University Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta. Jakarta, 2011, p. i, unpublished. good discriminating power because there were 35 items ranging from 0.25 until 0.75 70 of the test items had fulfilled the criteria of a positive discriminating power. 58 The last, Taufan Maulana Firdaus did an analysis about the difficulty level of English Try out Test of National Examination for Junior High School level at MTs Pembangunan UIN Jakarta. This study was categorized as a descriptive analysis because it was intended to describe the difficulty level of the English National Examination Try out test and it was also considered as quantitative research because the writer used some numerical data which was analyzed statistically. Then, he only took 110 students as a sample. The findings of the study that the test had 24 items 48 were classified as moderate items, 22 items 44 were concluded in easy items, and 4 items 8 including in difficult items. The index of difficulty of the whole test items were 0.696. So, the level of difficulty of English Try out Test of National Examination test for the third grade students of MTs Pembangunan UIN Jakarta was moderate level. 59 Above all, the writer compares those studies to her research that there is a similarity to the instrument that is in using the summative test. Almost all of the studies are categorized as a descriptive analysis and considered as quantitative research because of using the numerical data. But it is different from the writer that she only uses the qualitative research in her study by using the descriptive analysis and supported by some numerical data which are analyzed statistically. Then, in taking sample almost all of the previous studies above using 60 till 110 students’ answer sheet as a sample. The findings of both of them, Andrian and Topan’ s study in term the difficulty level have the same result of the writer’s research that is 58 Hikmah Lestari, An Item Analysis on Discriminating Power of English Summative Test A Case Study of second year of SMPN 87 Pondok Pinang , Research Paper at State Islamic University Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta. Jakarta, 2011, p. i, unpublished. 59 Taufan Maulana Firdaus, An Analysis on the Difficulty Level of English Try out Test of National Examination for Junior High School Level A Case Study at MTs Pembangunan UIN Jakarta, Research Paper at State Islamic University Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta. Jakarta, 2013, p. i, unpublished. moderate level and in the Hikmah’s study that the discriminating power also has the same result to the writer’s research result that is good discriminating power.

D. Thinking framework

Evaluation is important in teaching and learning process to know the teacher’s successfulness, in term his or her teaching, arranging the lesson planning, giving assignment, and controlling the classroom. One of the ways to get the information it can be obtained from the test. Talking about the test, the teacher often uses the summative test because it is tested in the end of period of a course to know the students’ competence whether they have already mastered all of the materials which have been taught by the teacher or not. To know all above, it can be conducted by analyzing the test items. In analyzing the test, it can be conducted by the teacher or the test maker after tested the test to the students. By analyzing the test items, it will be better if the teacher analysis the test based on the difficulty level and the discriminating power in the same times and procedures. Because, in analyzing the test items the teacher not only know the level of difficulties in term easy, moderate, and difficult items but also know how well the test items discriminate the upper and lower group students and whether the test items are able to be used for the next exam. So, by doing the analyzing the test, it is very useful for teachers, students, and all of the elements of education to improve the teaching and learning process from a small things.