Specialized spatial skills are necessary for success in various fields of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education. Technical disciplines are an academic field where the largest correlation with spatial skills has been noticed, and therefore spatial skills have been included in the entrance exams of study of architecture at the University of Banja Luka. Given that the scientific community has not reached consensus on what the spatial abilities are, there are various tests and tools used for its assessment, listed by factors that they measure. The paper will present typology of these factors and the variety of tests used for their assessment. This typology of tasks will be compared to the entrance exams held at the University of Banja Luka in the period 2005-2013. Also, the results of entrance exams will be compared with the student's success in specific groups of subjects during the study period to see if there would be any correlation among them. Results indicate at the emergence of a new factor in assessing the ability of candidates to study architecture-ability of divergent thinking. This correlation of divergent thinking and spatial ability has also been a topic of the latest research in cognitive psychology.

The topic of this paper is the concept and outcomes of the new syllabus of the course Visualization and Modeling. The aim of the course is to introduce students to digital and analog methods of design, visualization and fabrication. In order for students to acquire such complex matter more efficiently, the classes are held in the form of a five-day workshop. Topics to be covered in the workshop are selected based on their character, which is meant to bear a resemblance to that of architectural design, scaled down to match the scope and goals of the workshop.

Spatial abilities are becoming an increasingly important predictor of success, especially in professions that balance analytical and creative thinking, such as architecture, especially with the increasing presence of digital media and technology, and the importance of the spatial presentation of one’s ideas. There are differing opinions as to whether these abilities can be improved, or whether a spatial thinking strategy can be developed. At the Faculty of Architecture and Geodesy in Banja Luka (FACEG), spatial abilities have long been part of the entrance exam, and this paper will address the analysis of preparatory teaching at FACEG in this area and the success of the entrance exam for two groups of candidates - those who attended preparatory classes and those who prepared independently.

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In this paper, the factors that influence the improvement of spatial abilities of architecture students were examined. The main question was whether the course in Descriptive Geometry at the Faculty of Architecture, Civil Engineering, and Geodesy at the University of Banja Luka had an impact on students' spatial abilities. The study examined 118 students of the first year comparing their success at Spatial Ability tests in relation to whether they attended the Descriptive Geometry course. The obtained results of the study showed a significant improvement in students' spatial abilities in general and that the Descriptive Geometry course did not have a substantial influence on spatial abilities development. The SPSS v.20 analytical-statistical software package is used for the statistical analysis.