another class that had the same level with the respondents. The try out test was intended to know the reliability of the test items. Therefore, by administering the
try out test, the researcher knew whether the test items were difficult or easy for the students, the instructions were understable or not, the time allocation was
enough or not, and the material in the test was appropriate w ith the students’ level
or not. The try out test was administered on February 12
th
2015. The researcher chose one of the classes purposively by doing lottery to decide which class was
used for tried out. Thus, the subjects of the try out were VIII C class. The VIII C class, consisted of 32 students.
The researcher constructed 25 the reading test items in the form of multiple choice models with four options. The multiple choice model was applied
in this research because it was easy and practically to score. The test items were aimed to measure the students’ reading comprehension achievement especially of
recount text. The students were able to accomplish the reading comprehension achievement test for about 45 minutes.
4.3.1. The Analysis of Test Validity
The test items were considered to have content validity. The test items were in line with the basic and standard competences stated in the 2006
institutional-based curriculum. The researcher also consulted the test items to the English teacher of eighth grade classes and the consultants. The English teacher
and the research consultants agreed with the test items.
4.3.2. The Analysis of Difficulty Index
The Try Out test was in the form of multiple choice models. The multiple choice test consisted of 25 items, in which each item had 4 options. The test was
divided into four indicators: 9 items for word comprehension, 7 items for sentence comprehension, 5 items for paragraph comprehension, and 4 items for text
comprehension. The researcher analyzed the difficulty of items test, and divided into 3 categories: difficult, easy and average. It was also beneficial to determine
the points for scoring. It was analyzed by using the following formula:
Notes:
FV = the index of difficulty Facility Value
R = the number of the correct answers
N = the number of the students taking the test.
Heaton, 1991:178
Table 4.1 The Difficulty Index Level
Score Level Category
80-100 70-79
60-69 40-59
0-39 Excellent
Good Fair
Poor Failed
Source: Depdiknas 2004:13 Based on the result of the difficulty index analysis Appendix 13, 12
items of 25 items were categorized as easy items, 4 item were categorized as fair items, and the remaining items were categorized as average 9 items. Dealing
with the time allocation, the researcher found that the time allocation for the try out was appropriately given because the students were able to do the entire test
items within 75 minutes. For that reason, the researcher decided to have 20 test items of 25 try out test items for reading comprehension achievement. So, 5 items
were excluded from test items Thus, it could be concluded that there was 12 items belonged to too easy
and 4 items was too difficult, so the researcher eliminate those items to find 20 items for the reading test.
4.3.3. The Analysis of Test Reliability
