Abstract:

In the last courses, the number of students that give up subject has significantly increased in several Spanish universities. This fact is even more evident in first-year new students. One of the most relevant factors that make a student take the different assessment tests is their perception of the degree of difficulty of the subject. Several aspects make a student consider a subject as complicated: number of assignments and exams, number of hours of personal study required, affinity, teacher abilities, prior knowledge, etc.

This work is a detailed comparison of the final results obtained by freshmen students of the University of Burgos of the technical degrees of Mechanical Engineering, Electronic and Automatic Engineering, and Industrial Management Engineering. The pass rate and the number of students not presented are compared with the results obtained through a survey conducted to the students on their perception about the difficulty of several common signatures to all grades ones, carried out before the end of the academic year.

The results obtained show that three out of every fourth of students find more difficulty than expected in subjects of Mathematics (Calculus and Algebra). This aspect comes from the dropout rate for these subjects, which is the highest of the analysed ones. Despite this, most of the students who presented to the exams manage to pass the exam. On the other hand, in the Physics subject, the students do not find it difficult. However, a higher pass rate is not observed than in the rest of the topics.

Keywords:

Student's difficulty perfection, pass rate, first course, first-year undergraduate students.