Research has shown that mathematics courses at university often focus more on conceptual understanding than those taught at secondary school (Clark and Lovric (2008)). Moreover, the literature reports that the types of mathematical tasks assigned to students affect their learning (for example, Boesen, Lithner and Palm (2010)). A project was undertaken by the authors in which tasks were designed and presented to first-year undergraduate Calculus students with the aim of promoting conceptual understanding and developing mathematical thinking skills. At the end of the module five students were interviewed. This paper presents data from these interviews in which students reported an increased emphasis on conceptual understanding at university and that they found the tasks assigned beneficial with regard to the development of conceptual understanding and their learning of Calculus. Our findings suggest that unfamiliar tasks are useful aids in the transition from school to university mathematics.