Assessment of readiness of first- and second-year students, future teachers of mathematics, to master vocation-related subjects at university

Statement of the problem. Lately the decrease in the quality of mathematical preparation of secondary school graduates has been noticed in spite of the results of the Unified State Examination (USE) in Mathematics (proficiency level). Most first-year students with average USE scores have gaps in the knowledge of the school mathematics course, make mistakes during the solution of mathematical problems of basic level of complexity. As a consequence, they experience difficulties in mastering mathematical courses at university. The purpose of the article is to analyze the level of subject preparation of undergraduate students to master vocation-related subjects at the Institute of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics of the Krasnoyarsk State Pedagogical University named after V.P. Astafyev. Methodology and methods of research: system-activity approach; competence approach; methods of analysis of special literature and normative documents; methods of statistical data processing. Research results. The article presents the results of entrance testing in elementary mathematics for 1st and 2nd year students at the Institute of Mathematics, Physics and Informatics of the Krasnoyarsk State Pedagogical University named after V.P. Astafyev. The analysis of the most popular mistakes made when completing test tasks and of their possible causes is carried out. Correlation analysis of USE results and entrance test scores was made. Conclusions. The conclusions about insufficient readiness of first-year students to study higher mathematics in higher education institutions are made. The expediency of including a special introductory course in mathematics and/or a workshop on solving school mathematical problems in the curriculum of first-year students has been experimentally proved.