The aims of the research where to find out: 1) the kinds of grammatical error made by the eleventh grade science student of SMA N Patikraja in using simple past tense in writing recount text and (2) the dominant errors made by the eleventh grade science student of SMA N Patikraja in using simple past tense in writing recount text in academic year 2016/2017. It was a descriptive research in which the total sample was 32 students (class XI IPA 1, XI IPA 2, XI IPA 3 and XI IPA 4). The data was collected by conducting 32 writing test in writing recount text. The findings showed that the typical error that occured in using simple past tense in writing recount text were error of missformation (50.77%), omission (30.08%), addition (13.60%) and misordering (5.75%). Error of misformation was the highest error which was made by the students in using simple past tense in writing recount text with percentage 50.77%.