This research is about students’ difficulties in mastering English vocabulary of recount text. This research aimed to analyze the aspects of vocabulary mastery faced by the students, explain the students’ dominant difficulties in mastering English vocabulary of recount text, and describe the students' strategies to solve the difficulties in vocabulary mastery at the eighth grade MTs Negeri 1 Kediri. This research used quantitative method and descriptive design. The population was the eighth grade students of MTs Negeri 1 Kediri. The writer obtained the sample by using simple random sampling technique. The samples of this research were 112 students from 321 students. In collecting the data, the writer used test and interview. The test was used to determine each aspect's percentage and to explain the dominant difficulties, while interview was to describe the students’ strategies to solve the difficulties. This research findings were (1) The aspects of vocabulary mastery faced by the students were meaning (12.67%), spelling (12.88%), pronunciation (34.37%) and grammar (32.01), (2) The highest difficult aspect faced by the students was pronunciation with the percentage 34.37% (3) Each student had their own strategies in facing difficulties. Those were opening google translate dictionary, recalling memory about particular vocabulary and and always maintaining English vocabulary by playing an online game. From both instruments, the writer can conclude that pronunciation and grammar were the dominant difficulties faced by the students of MTS Negeri 1 Kediri.