Informe sobre prueba diagnóstica aplicada a estudiantes que ingresan a la Facultad de Ciencias Sociales

A change in the syllabus of the subject “Mathematic Fundamentals for Social Sciences”, a mandatory subject belonging to the first semester of the general education level of all bachelors at the Facultad de Ciencias Sociales, Universidad de la República. The change also brought an important decrease in the rates of approval. As a way of increasing the assistance and encouraging the students, several math support courses were created in 2011, as well as a propaedeutic course in the week before the start of class, which includes a diagnostic test. After two years of applying this test, we have information to present initial results of the situation of the students. The tests show that the levels of mathematical knowledge with which students enter the university are extremely and worryingly low. During 2013 we also included a socioeconomic and education-related test in order to cross the results of the diagnostic test. This would help us validate or refute an initial premise: non-Montevideo students as well as students who have not taken math courses in the last years have obtained the worst results. The second objective is to sensitize teachers in charge of humanistic college-related courses about the importance of mathematics within the Social Sciences.