AN ANALYSIS OF THE DIFFICULTY OF NATIONAL EXAMINATION TEST ITEMS FOR THE THIRD GRADE STUDENTS OF STATE SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL

This study aimed to determine the level of difficulty test items in the English National Examination 2016/ 2017. It focused on: (1) the items categorized into difficult in English National Examination 2016/2017 (2) learning objectives (indicators) categorized into difficult of English National Examination 2016/2017. This research descriptive quantitative study. The subjects were all students of the third grade at State Senior High School 5 Pekanbaru. The samples were 43 students randomly selected. The data were obtained through analyzing the answers of English National Examination 2016/2017. The test consisted of fifty items. The results showed that (1) the items categorized into difficult were item 2 (LISTENING: informal interpersonal conversation), item 3 (LISTENING: informal interpersonal conversation), item 5 (LISTENING: formal transactional conversation), item 8 (LISTENING: a monologue of museum) , item 9 (LISTENING: a monologue of temple on the beach), item 11 (LISTENING: a monologue of liquid droplets that appears in the morning), item 13 (LISTENING: a monologue of festival in West Nusa Tenggara), item 15 (LISTENING: a monologue of General Soedirman), item 20 (READING: procedure text), item 25 (READING: a letter ), item 26 (READING: a letter), item 31(READING: report text) , item 41 (READING: biography text), item 45(READING: discussion text), item 46 (WRITING: discussion text), and item 49 (READING: descriptive text). (2)The difficult indicators were indicator 1, indicator 2, indicator 3, indicator 4, indicator 5, indicator 7, indicator 9, indicator 10, indicator 11, indicator 13, and indicator 14. Keywords:Item Analysis, Difficulty Level, National Examination