y2018m05b07s 20180530082000 assa sbonga@assaf.org.za assa South African Journal of Science S. Afr. J. Sci 1996-7489 05302018 114 5/6 Aneshkumar Maharaj School of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4808-551X Thokozani Dlomo School of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa A review of relevant literature revealed that research indicates an alarming number of secondary school students who enter tertiary institutions display a serious lack of mathematical basics required for the study of university mathematics. This so-called change from the secondary school to tertiary study of mathematics has become an important field of mathematical learning research. In this context, at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, online diagnostics for pre-calculus knowledge and skills were made available to first-year mathematics students. We report here on some findings from an analysis of the provision of diagnostic questions for basic arithmetic and algebra. The results show that the diagnostic questions which were in the form of an online quiz assisted students to cope with their mathematics module in the sense that it positively impacted on the final results of students who attempted the quiz. Significance: • Students who completed an online quiz on basic arithmetic and algebra to identify their strengths and weaknesses indicated that the quiz prepared them for the material they had to study for their mathematics module. 05302018 1 10.17159/sajs.2016/crossmark sajs.co.za false 2017-05-16 2017-12-11 2018-05-30 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 10.17159/sajs.2018/20170078 20180530082000 https://www.sajs.co.za/article/view/5163 https://www.sajs.co.za/article/view/5163/6659 https://www.sajs.co.za/article/view/5163/6659 https://www.sajs.co.za/article/view/5163/6659 https://www.sajs.co.za/article/view/5163/6659 https://www.sajs.co.za/article/view/5163/6659 https://www.sajs.co.za/article/view/5163/6659 https://www.sajs.co.za/article/view/5163/6659