Enhancing students' achievement in math word problems through reading comprehension and learning motivation

Understanding the content of the message is crucial for students to answer questions of math word problems. This study aims at determining the effect of reading comprehension on the test results of math word problems, learning motivation on the test results of math word problems, and the effect of reading comprehension and learning motivation together on the test results of math word problems. The research sample was 160 students in 8th grade in North Jakarta. We used 20 essay questions for reading comprehension data and 20 math word problems, while the questions about learning motivation were using a questionnaire with 20 statements. The data obtained were then validated with the requirements of r>.70; valid data were further analyzed with the help of Smart-PLS. The results showed that there was a direct positive influence of learning motivation on students' achievement of math word problems, reading comprehension on students' achievement of math word problems, learning motivation on reading comprehension, and indirect learning motivation on students' achievement of math word problems through reading comprehension. The higher the reading comprehension of a student, the higher the math score will be.