Many undergraduate mathematics departments struggle with how to accurately place
incoming students into mathematics courses with use of a mathematics placement exam. But,
what should that exam test? It might be true that mathematics professors would value students
arriving with considerable mathematics knowledge and mathematics skills (even if these are
routine skills) as much as them arriving with the ability to solve nonroutine problems. But, a
problem-solving test would look quite different if it tested mathematics knowledge and
mathematics skills versus the ability to solve nonroutine problems