Abstract
The paper shows preliminary results of a qualitative investigation focused on students’ perceived difficulties after solving INVALSI Math tasks (grade 9 and 10 students). This survey is part of a larger study made up of a first qualitative phase and a second quantitative phase. The purpose of the first qualitative phase is to identify the factors that influence students’ perceived difficulties.Despite factors that contribute to increasing or decreasing the difficulties of a task (in an absolute sense) are widely studied in the literature, the stu-dent’s perceived difficulty relative to a Math task is not.In order to investigate students’ metacognitive factors, mathematical competencies (through the resolution of INVALSI tasks), as well as the ex-plication of difficulties faced in the comprehension and resolution of tasks, a questionnaire was administered during the qualitative phase. The aim of this research is to highlight some of the factors that contribute to building students’ perceived difficulties in relation to Mathematical tasks.Future phases of the research will allow us to compare students’ perceived difficulty to that of teachers and to the skill levels constructed by INVALSI.