Assessment of Students’ Mathematical Skills in Relation to Their Strengths and Weaknesses, at Different Levels of the European Qualifications Framework

Abstract

Many scientific studies focus on finding the relationship between students’ mathematical skills and socio-economic, demographic, and ontogenetic factors. In this publication, we answer the question of how students’ mathematical skills are achieved in relation to their strengths and weaknesses, also with regard to the use of mathematics in everyday life. In this article, we examine the relationship between the results of the mock final math exam for eighth grade primary school students/final year high school students and additional math classes, the application of math in everyday life and the greatest difficulties with specific areas of taught material. The study was conducted in Poland on almost ten thousand eighth graders and high school leavers who took part in mock exams online, respectively: eighth-grader exam, and school-leaving maturity exam. The participants of these online exams were asked to respond to a survey that pertained to their math grades, attending additional math classes, their perceived most useful mathematical topics in everyday life and future professional work, and identification of their strengths and weaknesses. In the following paper, the relationships between the answers to the survey questions and the results of the mock online exam are analyzed. The results indicate that there are differences in the area of results of the mock exam and answers about strengths and weakness in mathematical literacy. The analysis of answers about use the mathematical knowledge are different for eight-graders and high-school students. Eight-graders indicate the importance of arithmetic operations while high -school students point out more abstract topics like probability, statistics and geometry. The results of the study are compared to the existing results.