First Year Undergraduate Mathematics Students Error Analysis on Solving Rational Inequality

Abstract

Solving a rational inequalities is difficult for mathematics students. Many of them make a mistake when solving such problem. This research aimed to investigate and categorize a first year mathematics undergraduate student error when solving rational inequalities problem. The data were obtained from 75 students taking the course introduction to algebra, through anlysis of students response to the items of the quiz. The result showed that many students had mistake of type errorrs in inequality rules. Most of them are solving the rational inequalities by treating it as a rational equation. This mistake happen because they misunderstand about the rule of inequality while they are performing multiplication. The other mistake is of type error in writing the solution. The students didn’t use number line so that leads to incorrect