A Survey of Construction-Related Math Skills in an Introductory-Level Construction Management Course

Construction management (CM) professionals use construction-related math skills daily in many aspects of their work. These math skills include adding and subtracting lengths, finding areas and volumes, and changing from one unit of measurement to another. Many of these math skills are taught during elementary school, but numerous students are unable to confidently apply the skills several years later when they enter college, even though they may be eligible to take pre-calculus at that time. This paper presents the results of a diagnostic construction-related math quiz given in a freshman level CM course over five different semesters, illustrating students’ consistent difficulty performing these math skills. Since it is imperative that students have confidence applying construction-related math skills upon graduation with a construction management degree, this paper also proposes strategies to improve students’ construction math skills.