The main aim of this article is to discuss the attitudes to mathematics of students taking a basic mathematics course at a Swedish university, and to explore possible links between how well such students manage to solve tasks about limits of functions and their attitudes. Two groups, each of about a hundred students, were investigated using questionnaires, field notes and interviews. From the results presented a connection can be inferred between students’ attitudes to mathematics and their ability to solve limit tasks. Students with positive attitudes perform better in solving limit problems. The educational implications of these findings are also discussed.