Analysis of student difficulties based on respondents ability test on the topic of geometry molecules

Abstract

In this research, the comprehension levels and students difficulties on the subject of molecular geometry were determined via respondents ability test. This test consist of five items designed specifically to detect what the students think. One problem has several options, each of which has an indicator of learning difficulty so that when the student selects one of these options, the researcher can immediately detect the difficulties that the student has. The students answer comes with a reason to avoid guess answers. The test was applied on 52 students of grade X. Analysis of test results using descriptive qualitative analysis. According to the findings obtained from the test, the students had numerous difficulties. It was found there are 7 kinds difficulties in geometry molecules material. The top three difficulties experienced by students are (1) 71% of students do not understand the meaning of the symbol of lewis where students describe in the form of covalent bonds; (2) 65% of students do not understand the influence of free electron pairs at geometry molecules; 31% of students do not understand the various types of geometry molecules when given the problem of placing between the name and geometry of the molecules. These results shown that students still do not understand the basic concept of geometry molecules, so that it is required further investigation to find out how to overcome student learning difficulties on the topic of geometry molecules.