25
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
A. The Objective of The Study
The objective of this study is to measure the quality of difficulty level of English Summative test items at odd semester of the second grade students at
SMP YMJ Ciputat, specifically in difficulty level of each item. This research is regarded as a field for the writer wish to widen her or his knowledge both
theoretically and practically about testing, specifically about difficulty level of the test items.
B. Place and Time of The Study
The research was conducted at SMP Yayasan Miftahul Jannah YMJ Ciputat. This is located at Jl. Limun No. 27 Ciputat Tangerang Selatan. The
writer did the research from January 5
th
up to February 10, 2010. The writer took the English Summative test question paper and the students’ answer sheet at odd
semester of the second grade students at SMP YMJ Ciputat.
C. Research Method
In this research the writer used quantitative analysis technique. The data are calculated using simple percentage formula. It is used to find out difficulty
level of each item of English Summative test at odd semester of the second grade students at SMP YMJ Ciputat, Academic year 2009-2010.
D. Research Instrument
1 The students’ answer sheet The students’ answer sheet is papers in which students give their answer
that correspondent to English summative test.
2 English summative test question paper at odd semester of the second grade students at SMP YMJ Ciputat, 2009-2010 academic year, which
was conducted on Wednesday, December 9
th
, 2009. Started at 7.30 up to 9.30 a.m.
E. The Techniques of Data Analysis
In this research the writer used quantitative method. To analyze the level of difficulty of each item in the English summative test, at odd semester of the
second grade students at SMP YMJ Ciputat. To count the difficulty level, the writer uses formula from J.B. Heaton as
follows: FV = Correct U + Correct L
N
Where: FV
: Facility value or item difficulty that we are looking for U
: Sum of students from the upper group who answer correctly L
: Sum of students from the lower group who answer correctly N
: Total sum of students in upper and lower group.
1
Based on the techniques above, the writer tries to find out the difficulty level of all the items in the English Summative at odd semester tested at second
year students of SPM YMJ Ciputat, 2009-2010 academic year, by following formula:
Where: P
: Difficulty level of all items. B
: Difficulty level of each item
1
J.B. Heaton, Writing English…, p.182
P = ∑ b
N
∑ : Sigma Total
N : Total number of test items.
2
Score “FV” Facility value or item difficulty that we are looking for and “P” difficulty level of all items can be ranged from 0.00 to 1.00. If “FV” or “P”
is less than 0.30, it means almost the student from upper and lower groups cannot answer the item test correctly these items belong to difficult one. If “FV” or “P”
is 0.30 - 0.70, it means the proportion of students answering correctly is about halfway between a chance value and the point where no student misses the item
these items belong to moderate one. And if “FV” or “P” is more than 0.70, it means almost the students from upper and lower group can answer the item test
correctly these items belong to very easy one. To make clear, the writer will give the table of difficulty level range as
follow:
3
Table 3.1 Level of Difficulty
P Interpretation
≤ 0.30 Difficult
0.30 – 0.70 Moderate
≥ 0.70 Easy
The level of difficulty shows the easiness or difficultness of item test for that group. So the level of difficulty is influenced by the students’ competence. It
will be different if the test is given to another group.
2
Asmawi Zainul dan Noehi Nasution, Penilaian Hasil Belajar, Jakarta: PAU-PPAI, UT, 1993, p. 153
3
Sumarna Surapranata, Analisis, Validitas, Reliabilitas dan Interpretasi Hasil Tes, Bandung: Remaja Rosda Karya, 2006, p. 21
28
CHAPTER IV RESEARCH FINDING AND DISCUSSION
Kategori