The article examines the potential of soft modeling and expert systems in modern education. There is a growing understanding in the scientific community of the need to use flexible and rather soft mathematics in modeling various complex systems. As a rule, each model reflects the internal organization of any system, its essence, which is determined by the set goals.Non-strict or soft models are of a general nature. Fuzzy set theory and fuzzy logic are the basis for creating fuzzy control systems and fuzzy decision-making systems. The ideas of soft modeling are also applicable to expert systems. The authors of the article consider the solution of such problems in relation to education, in particular, determining the significance of various sections of the course "mathematics" for special professionally oriented disciplines.