MATHEMATICS SKILLS & DEFICIENCIES OF SCIENCES AND ENGINEERING STUDENTS AT THE BEGINNING OF THEIR DEGREES

According to the experience of the researchers and the literature, there is a high percentage of students that commit a similar set of conceptual mistakes in the exams of Calculus and Numerical Calculus at University. These subjects are present in the first year of most of the degrees in Sciences and Engineering.

The aim of the present research was to detect such errors in order to work with the students to avoid them. From the point of view of authors the best way of avoiding them would be if Mathematics secondary school teachers insisted on the clarification of such concepts.

With the aim of detecting the most common mistakes, all the students of the subject of Calculus and Numerical Calculus at the degree of Computer Science of Oviedo University had to take a level test at the beginning of their first semester at University. Such initial test allowed us to identify the most common mistakes. After the identification of the mistakes, they were analysed with the help of secondary school teachers for them to work with their students in their understanding.

Our intention is to repeat the level test at the end of the academic year with those students that finish the secondary school after teachers have worked those concepts with them and also repeating it next course with the new Computer Science students in order to know if the work performed at secondary school has been significant for the avoidance of the conceptual problems detected.

In this research we are presenting the main mistakes detected and the results of the level test performed at the beginning of the semester by the students of Computer Sciences and the results of a survey in which they are asked about their impressions of the difficulty of Calculus at the degree of Computer Sciences and also about their impressions of the subject of Mathematics during the last year of the secondary school.

The results obtained show how, from the point of view of students, there is a great change in the difficulty of Maths at University when compared with the same subject at secondary school. We hope that the present research can contribute to close this gap.