Translation skill is important for students of English Education Department as in the future they will need the skill to translate their own scientific papers for international publication. However, to master the skills of translating texts, students should have enough understanding on both the language and the culture of languages (source and target language). This research aims to 1) identify the difficulty faced by the students when translating texts, and 2) measure students’ ability in translating texts. The data were gained from the students’ translation products. The subjects were 30 students of English Education Department in the State Islamic University of North Sumatra. The data collecting instrument was translation test where students translated English text into Indonesian. The findings indicate that students had difficulty in translating the English text into Indonesian especially in terms of accuracy and acceptability, but the students’ translations were better in terms of readability. The difficulties in translating the English text into Indonesian were due to students’ lack of understanding in applying the appropriate translation methods when translating the text. Moreover, the students also lack of ability in choosing the right words that will be the best equivalence in the target language. The findings also show that students had sufficient ability in translating text from English to Indonesian.
Keywords: assessment, translation competence, source language, students, target language