SIJMMARYA simple approach is proposed to calculate the bifurcation and limit points of structures, taking into account the pre-unstable behaviour, by the finite element method. The approach is as follows: at each load step, the triangular factorization of the tangent stiffness matrix is checked to determine if the matrix is positive definite or not. When the tangent stiffness matrix is positive definite at a certain load step and non-positive definite at the next load step, the structure is considered to become unstable between the two load steps and an eigenproblem is constructed based on the difference of the tangent stiffness matrices at the two load steps. The critical load and corresponding mode of the structure are then derived from solving the eigenproblem. The proposed procedure is simple and economical, and it can be easily incorporated into a conventional geometric nonlinear analysis computer program. It is implemented in the ADINA program and some sample calculations are shown.