In this paper we study the use of resources by students in their mathematical work at the beginning of university. The institution offers a variety of resources: lecture notes, books, exercises, websites, to name but a few. Leaning on a theoretical framework by Rabardel, we argue that the university teachers expected an epistemic mediation of these resources, as they supported student learning of (higher level) mathematics. However, analysing two case studies (one in the UK and one in France) we observe that the actual use of resources by novice mathematics students corresponded to a pragmatic mediation, as they searched for worked examples and “reproduction techniques”, all very similar to their use of resources at secondary school.