The task of higher education is twofold: (1) to prepare students to meet the expectations of the labor market; and (2) to create a learning environment and conditions so that as many students can meet the subject requirements as possible, the dropout rate should be the lowest possible. Input and continuous monitoring of students' transversal competencies can be a suitable method to meet this dual requirement. The range of these competencies is very diverse. In our present study, we focused on inductive thinking, which plays an important role in problem-solving. The research involved 212 first-grade BSc technical students. Our measurement tool is widely used in the selection of the workforce, which the students had to fill in online. The gained results were evaluated using IBM SPSS Statistics. The analysis included a comparison of inductive thinking and its two subcomponents, abstract reasoning, and diagrammatic cognition, in terms of background variables, as well as time consumption, and the definition of specific performance. We found a functional relationship between time consumption and the performance achieved in the test. Students have advanced analogical cognition in terms of abstract thinking; however, their diagrammatic thinking shows very different levels of development, which can cause difficulties in solving technical problems.