The aim of this study was to investigate the attitudes students studying at the Social Science programme have towards mathematics and the way mathematics is taught at high school. The background to this study was the concerns expressed in a report from the National Agency for Education about the mathematics education in the Swedish school system. Some of the concerns expressed by the National Agency for Education had to do with a lack of genuine mathematical understanding among many students and too much dependence on the textbooks in the teaching of mathematics, creating a learning situation in which many students loose interest in mathematics. The study was conducted in three classes studying at the Social Science programme. One of the classes was a first-year class and the other two were second-year classes. The results of this study confirm many of the findings of the National Agency for Education. The overall majority of the students regard mathematics as an important subject which is necessary to learn to qualify for the work market. On the negative side, however, a majority of the students also express that they have difficulties keeping up with the pace and that much of the learning is done without a real understanding about what they learn. A majority of the students also express that they would want to know more about the purpose of learning the different areas of mathematics and more of real life applications. Furthermore, a majority of the students do think that the teaching of mathematics is too dependent on the textbooks and many of them would want to see more of alternative ways of working in mathematics (i.e. group projects, computer labs, etc.).