Students' Ability to Formulate Situation Mathematically from Context-Based Mathematics Problems

Mathematical literacy has become one of the new standards for students' understanding. To be able to develop suitable problem-solving strategies, especially context-based problems, students need to have the ability to formulate situations mathematically well. This research was conducted to observe students' abilities in formulating situations mathematically. The research subjects were students aged 14-16 years in Malang City in February 2023. This research was qualitative research. The data collected was students’ answers on context-based mathematical problems from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) whose questions are related to activities of formulating situations mathematically. Result showed that the majority of students did not have sufficient ability and experience in formulating situations mathematically, both in terms of understanding the context of the problem, determining variables, and developing problem-solving strategies. This means that many students still have difficulty determining procedures for solving PISA problems, especially context-based ones. Teachers need to provide more learning and familiarization regarding the process of formulating situations mathematically to make it easier for students to solve context-based mathematical problems.