This is by no means isolated to engineering or mathematics either. Nearly all students, especially in higher education, will have gaps in their understanding of topics they are expected to just know. The classroom simply isn't able to personalise learning to each student in the way that's needed. The only thing that really can help here the is clever application of technology.

This is part of the problem that I'm working to solve with my startup Ellumia. Some others are making great strides in areas like language learning, but there's still lots to be tackled. We're building a mobile platform that blends bite-sized content with a highly personalised, social experience – something that would be immensely helpful to the students mentioned in this post. If you're interested in innovative learning methods, please check us out: http://www.ellumia.com