the population was homogenous, the researcher analyzed the students’ previous
midterm test scores by using ANOVA Appendix F. It showed that the significant value between two groups was 1.000, that was higher than 0.05. It
means that H which said “The two classes are homogenous” was accepted and H
1
which said “The two classes are not homogenous” was rejected. To determine the experimental class and control class the researcher used a lottery. The result was
VIII B as the experimental class and VIII A as the control class.
4.5 The Results of the Tryout Test
The reading test try out was conducted on April, 8
th
2015. It was given to the students of class VIII C which was not belonged to the experimental group
and the control group. There were 32 students in the class. Split halves method was applied to know the reliability and the difficulty index of the test items. Each
will be explained respectively in the following parts.
4.5.1 The Analysis of the Test Reliability
The researcher applied Split Half odd-even technique Appendix O to assess the value of reliability coefficient and to get the value of the whole text
reliability r
xy
, the correlation of the two halves was continued to be analyzed by using Spearman-Brown formula Korb:2014. The researcher marked X for the
odd numbers and Y for the even numbers Appendix M and N. The result of analysis is presented as follows:
� =
− − −
2
−
2
= 89.3125
141.875 181.219 =
89.3125 25710.44563
= 0.5570
The result of the half of the test � was 0.557. Then, Spearman-Brown
formula was used to get the reliability of the whole test. The formula was as follows:
Reliability coefficient of whole test =
2 x coefficient for split halves 1+coefficient for split halves
= 2 0.557
1 + 0.557 =
1.114 1.557
= 0.715 The result of the whole test reliability of the test was 0.715. Based on the
criteria according to Djiwandono 1996:154, the test had high reliability. It was in the range of 0.70
– 0.89. It could be concluded that the test items of the reading test were appropriate to be tested for the experimental group VIII B and the
control group VIII A. The researcher did not need any changes of the test items.
4.5.2 The Analysis of Difficulty Index of the Test Items
The reading test try out was conducted on April 8
th
2015 at 08.35 - 09.30. It was given to class VIII C which did not belong to the experimental group and
the control group. The class consisted of 32 students. The researcher analyzed the index difficulty of the test items after conducting the try out. It was known that
there were 2 items 7 categorized as easy, 3 items 10 categorized as difficult and 25 items 83 categorized as moderate Appendix P. The
researcher decided to use 25 items which were categorized as moderate items as the reading test items for the experimental group and the control group. The
researcher used the test items which were in the range of 0.30 – 0.70 as the
moderate items. Thus, the reading test was not too easy or too difficult for the students.
The other points to be measured by conducting the try out were time allocation and the instruction to do the test. The researcher decided to shorten the
time allocation from 60 minutes to 50 minutes. It was done because when the try out was conducted, more than 90 of the students could finish doing the test
items before 60 minutes. They finished the items around 45-50 minutes. Furthermore, the students did not have any problems for the instructions. It means
that they were able to understand the instruction. Thus, it could be concluded that the instruction was clear for the students to understand.
4.6 The Results of the Reading Posttest
