The purpose of this study was to investigate 6th, 7th and 8th grade students' common difficulties regarding rate and ratio problems. The data was collected from 149 sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students enrolled in public middle schools in Balikesir in response to three typical proportionality questions. Data analysis revealed that the confusion of unit rate identification and algorithmically based mistakes were identified as major difficulties in solving the missing-value proportion and comparison problems. To address the potential difficulties students have regarding rate and ratio problems, students should be exposed to different types of proportional problems.