ANALYSIS OF STUDENT

DIFFICULTIES IN MATHEMATICS
PROBLEM
SOLVING ABILITY AT MTS
SWASTA IRA MEDAN
By: Milda Rizky Novriania and
Edy Surya

Presented by: Andrea Paula D.

Esperanza
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

- This study aims to

describe the analysis of
student difficulties in
solving math problems
class VIII MTs
SWASTA IRA Medan.
OBJECTIVES

 This study aim to analyze

students' difficulties in
math problem solving skills
in schools.
Research Respondents

 The subjects of this study are

students of class VIII MTs
SWASTA IRA Medan
academic year 2016/2017
which amounted to 39 people.
STATISTICAL
TOOL

Technique of collecting data

is;
• Written test
• Interview
EARCH METHODS
The type of this
research is qualitative
descriptive to see the
description of student
difficulties in problem
solving ability of student
math.
 Research Methods
PROBLEM SOLVING ABILITY TESTS IN THE FORM
CONSISTED ONE
PROBLEM CUBE WITH FOUR QUESTIONS. THE SCORING
TECHNIQUES USED IN THIS STUDY USING THE FOLLOWING
GUIDELINES:
TO CALCULATE THE
PERCENTAGE OT THE TOTAL
SCORE FOR EACH INDICATOR
OF PROBLEM SOLVING ABILITY
(P/K) USED :
RESULT AND DISCUSSION
Examples of students' answers on problem solving
P
abilities
ROBLEM :
test:
ANGGI MAKES A CUBE SHAPED CAKE WITH A RIB
LENGTH OF 20 CM. ANGGI WILL PUT THE CAKE INTO
CARDBOARD. ANGGI WILL
MAKE HIS OWN CARDBOARD USING CARDBOARD. WHAT
TO DO ANGGI?
A. WHAT DATA IS OBTAINED FROM THE PROBLEM?
B. HOW ANGGI PUTS THE CAKE INTO THE BOX?
C. CALCULATE THE SURFACE AREA OF THE CUBE
SHAPED CAKE THAT WILL BE INSERTED INTO THE BOX?
D. CHECK BACK THE RESULTS OF THE QUESTION C! IS
THE SURFACE AREA OF THE CAKE 2.400 CM2? WHAT
TO DO ANGGI?
EXPLAIN!
HE CAN UNDERSTAND THE PROBLEM AND CAN
MAKE A
PLANNING TOO, THEN HE CAN SOLVE THE PROBLEM
WELL. ONLY 3 OF 39 STUDENTS CAN SOLVE THE
PROBLEM WELL,
THEY ARE S3, S12 AND S33.
• STUDENT 2 CAN’T UNDERSTAND THE PROBLEM
WELL. SHE ALSO CAN’T MAKE A PLANNING, THE SHE
CAN
PERFORMING THE PLAN WELL.
• STUDENT 3 ARE NOT ABLE TO PLAN AND SOLVE
THE PROBLEMS AT THE SAME TIME IN CHECKING
RESULT
FROM THE ANSWER, STUDENTS JUST MULTIPLY THE
NUMBER CONTAINED IN THE PROBLEM.
OBTAINED BASED ON THE
RESULT OF THE INTERVIEW ON THE MATHEMATICS
TEACHER THAT IS
1) THE STUDENTS HAVE DIFFICULTY SOLVING
MATHEMATICAL
PROBLEMS IN READING THE TEXT OR QUESTIONS,
2) THE STUDENTS ALWAYS MISINTERPRETED THE
PROBLEM,
3) IF THE STUDENTS
DON’T UNDERSTAND THE PROBLEM THEN THEY WILL
GUESSED THE ANSWER FROM THE PROBLEM,
4) THE STUDENTS DON’T WANT TO
FIND OUT THE SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM GIVEN,
5) THE STUDENTS HAVE DIFFICULTIES IN
UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEM SO CAN’T
INTERPRETED IT INTO A SYMBOL FORM.
5.2 DISCUSSIONS
-Based on the results of the research shows that most
students MTs SWASTA IRA Medan class VIII are not able
to solve the problems that well provided with meet the
level of indicators of problem solving ability. Percentage
of students' ability to understanding problem reached
84.62% and classified in the category good, the percentage
of problem solving ability of students to planning 61.54%
and classified in the category good enough, the
percentage of problem solving ability of students to
performing the plan 39.74% and classified into categories
very less, the percentage of the student's ability to
confirmation the answer the results obtained 32.05% and
classified in the category very less, while the average
percentage reached 54.48% and classified not enough
category. This indicates that the class was not finished in
solving problems.
CONDUCTED BY PHONAPICHAT AND HIS
COLLEAGUES [15] STATES THAT STUDENTS HAVE
DIFFICULTY IN UNDERSTANDING THE
MATHEMATICAL PROBLEMS THAT AFFECT THE
PROBLEM SOLVING PROCESS.

STUDENT
DIFFICULTIES IN PROBLEM SOLVING NAMELY
1) STUDENTS HAVE DIFFICULTIES IN
UNDERSTANDING THE KEYWORDS APPEARING IN
PROBLEMS, THUS CAN’T INTERPRET THEM IN
MATHEMATICAL SENTENCES.
2) STUDENTS ARE UNABLETO FIGURE OUT WHAT TO
ASSUME AND WHAT INFORMATION FROM THE
PROBLEM IS NECESSARY TO SOLVING IT,
3) WHENEVER STUDENTS DON’T
UNDERSTAND THE PROBLEM, THEY TEND TO GUESS
THE ANSWER WITHOUT ANY THINKING PROCESS.
 4)Students are impatient
and don’t like to read mathematical
problems, and
5) Students don’t like to read long
problems. Likewise with
research (Lubis and his colleagues [21])
Said that the average percentage
reached 50% and classified in the not
good category. It shows class in solving
problems unresolved.
 -BASED ON THE ABOVE
EXPLANATION, THE RESEARCHER
ANALYZED THE STUDENTS'
DIFFICULTIES IN PROBLEM SOLVING
ABILITY AND OBTAINED THE RESULT OF
THE RESEARCH BASED ON THE
INDICATOR THAT THE STUDENTS OF
MTS SWASTA IRA MEDAN CLASS
VIII CAN’T SOLVE THE PROBLEM GIVEN
WITH THE PROBLEM SOLVING
INDICATOR.
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
The results showed that the percentage of problem solving
ability of
students in the indicators of problem understanding of problem
solving was 84.62%, indicator planning was
61.54%, the indicator of performing the plan was 39.74%, and the
confirmation of the answer indicator was
32.05%. And students' difficulties in solving such problems
1) students have difficulty solving mathematical
problems in reading text or questions.
2) students always misinterpretation the problem.
3) If students don’t
understand the problem then they will guess the answer from
the problem.
4) the students do not want to find
out the solution of the problem given, 5) the students have
difficulty in understanding the problem so can’t
interpreted it into symbol form.
CONCLUSION
-Based on the analysis and discussion of the
results of research conducted can be concluded
that percentage of
students’ ability to understanding problem
reached 84.62% and classified in the category
good, the percentage
of problem solving ability of students to
planning 61.54% and classified in the category
good enough, the
percentage of problem solving ability of
students to performing the plan 39.74% and
classified into categories
very less, the percentage of the student’s ability
to confirmation the answer the results obtained
WITH TEACHERS IN THE FIELD OF
MATHEMATICS STUDIES SUCH AS
1) STUDENTS HAVE DIFFICULTY SOLVING
MATHEMATICAL
PROBLEMS IN READING TEXT OR QUESTIONS.
2) STUDENTS ALWAYS MISINTERPRET THE
PROBLEM.
3) IF STUDENTS DON’T
UNDERSTAND THE PROBLEM THEN THEY WILL
GUESS THE ANSWER FROM THE PROBLEM,
4) THE STUDENTS DON’T WANT TO FIND OUT
THE SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM GIVEN,
5) THE STUDENTS HAVE DIFFICULTY IN
UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEM SO CAN’T
INTERPRET
IT INTO SYMBOL FORM.
RECOMMENDATION
-Based on these results, the
recommendations can be submitted by
researcher are:
• For teacher, it’s better to give more
practicess to solve non routine problem to
increase student’s ability
to solved student’s math problems.
• For students, must to practice more and
study math to have a good result and not
having any difficulty
in doing test that has to do with math solving
problem
REFERENCES
Novriania, M. & Surya E. (2017). Analysis
of Student Difficulties in Mathematics
Problem
Solving Ability at MTs SWASTA IRA
Medan.,Indonesia. July 20,2017.
REFLECTION

1. Based on this research I have

learned that there are so many
factors that affects students in
understanding and solving math.
2. I have learned on this research
that we must practice more and
study math to have a good result
and not having any difficulty on it.