This research was aimed at knowing whether mind mapping could improve
students‟ reading comprehension of descriptive text. This research was conducted at
SMP Negeri 3 Purwokerto in Academic Year 2014/2015. The method of this research
was classroom action research (CAR). The subject of this research was the students of
8F of SMP Negeri 3 Purwokerto which consisting of 35 students. The treatment was
carried out in two cycles of four actions. Every cycle consisted of planning, acting,
observing and reflecting. To collect data the writer used test, observation, questionnaire
and interview. The result of the research showed that mind mapping technique can
improve the students‟ reading comprehension of descriptive text. The pre-test score
increased from 67.14 to 74.26 in post-test I, then 81.51 in post-test II. The number of
the students that reached the passing grade was increasing from 25.71% in pre-test, to
51.43 in post-test I, and 94.29% in post-test II. It had reached the criterion of action
success which was more than 85% students in VIII-F could reach the passing grade of
75. The observation result showed that the mean of students activeness increased from
44.38% in cycle I to 81.54% in cycle II. The mean percentage of questionnaire was
96.98%. It showed that the students gave positive responses to the implementation of
mind mapping technique. Based on the result of the research, it could be concluded that
mind mapping could improve students‟ reading comprehension of descriptive text.