In physics lectures on electromagnetic theory and mathematical methods, physics teacher candidates
have some difficulties with curvilinear coordinate systems. According to our experience, based on
both in-class interactions and teacher candidates’ answers in test papers, they do not seem to have
understood the variables in curvilinear coordinate systems very well. For this reason, the problems
that physics teacher candidates have with variables in curvilinear coordinate systems have been
selected as a study subject. The aim of this study is to find the physics teacher candidates’
problems with determining the variables of drawn shapes, and problems with drawing shapes based on
given variables in curvilinear coordinate systems. Two different assessment tests were used in the
study to achieve this aim. The curvilinear coordinates drawing test (CCDrT) was used to discover
their problems related to drawing shapes, and the curvilinear coordinates detection test (CCDeT) was
used to fi…