eng Science and Education Publishing American Journal of Educational Research 2327-6150 2017-02-22 5 2 179 183 10.12691/education-5-2-11 EDUCATION20175211 article S Sahyar sahyar@unimed.ac.id 1 Rika Yulia Fitri 1 Post Graduate, State University of Medan, Medan, Indonesia This study aimed to analyze whether the result of students' problem-solving ability with using problem-based learning model better than conventional learning, to analyze the results of problem-solving ability of students who have high average of adversity quotient better than students who have low average of adversity quotient, to find out interaction between problem-based learning model mapping and adversity quotient of students' problem-solving ability. Two class of students namely; problem-based learning class and conventional learning class were investigated on student's problem-solving ability. The results showed that: problem-solving ability of students used problem-based learning model better than conventional learning, problem-solving ability of students who have high average of adversity quotient better than students who have the low average of adversity quotient, and there was interaction between the problem-based learning model and conventional learning with adversity quotient to improve students' problem-solving ability. http://pubs.sciepub.com/education/5/2/11/education-5-2-11.pdf problem-based learning model conventional learning adversity quotient problem-solving ability