The mathematical crisis of successful students in secondary-tertiary transition

The huge difficulties related to the transition from secondary to tertiary mathematics are documented by a large amount of official data. The analysis of these difficulties is one of the main issues in educational research focusing on the undergraduate level. The case of students who choose mathematics as a major is of particular interest. In fact, for the most part, they are students who are considered excellent in mathematics during secondary school and they seem to have the cognitive resources to succeed, but, in many cases, they encounter several difficulties during their university experience. Therefore, it appears especially interesting to also study the affective causes – that is, the causes which pertain to the emotional sphere – and consequences of these difficulties. With this aim, we developed a qualitative and narrative study focused on students’ reflections about the difficulties during their experience studying mathematics in university.