Are you smarter than a high-schooler?

Abstract

This research examines the ability of students in introductory level college mathematics courses to recall fundamental information they learned in high school mathematics courses. During the first week of the Spring 2012 semester, students from three college mathematics classes were given a nineteen-problem quiz that consisted of problems on high school mathematics topics. Immediately following the quiz, the students were asked to complete a six question survey which was used to measure students’ prior mathematical knowledge, their outlook on mathematics, and how easily the students felt they could complete the quiz based on their ability to recall previously learned material. Results from the quiz and survey were compared and analyzed to draw conclusions. At the conclusion of this research study, it was determined that a significant difference existed in the students’ scores on individual questions based on the type of mathematics problem and a significant difference existed in the students’ total quiz scores based on their previous mathematics experience.