Is mathematical background crucial to freshmen engineering students?

The objective of this paper is to study the influence of the background in Mathematics on the failure rates in Calculus. Some papers in the literature deal with problems related to teaching-learning in Calculus under different points of view. Among those problems, one that is often cited is the lack of mathematical background presented by freshman-year Engineering students. In order to analyze the impact of this lack of background, a study with 419 first-year Calculus students on two campuses of the Federal University of Technology - Paraná (UTFPR) was conducted. The students took a diagnostic test with 15 questions that measured their knowledge on topics that are considered as prerequisite for Calculus. The results of this study showed that there is a moderate correlation and dependency between the background in Mathematics and the final grade in Calculus. Evidently, if the student has a solid mathematical background, there is a higher probability of success in Calculus. However, one can notice that even with lower scores on the diagnostic test, some students managed to obtain passing grades in Calculus. This fact indicates that the background in Mathematics might not be a decisive factor on the performance in Calculus.