Despite the abundance of scientific textbooks, references, and educational websites, students in the 1st year of the bachelor of dental surgery (BDS) program face some academic challenges. Distress, learning difficulties, and study discontinuation are all possible outcomes of these challenges. The present study was motivated by the scarcity of literature pertaining to the obstacles faced by the 1st year dental students in learning and understanding dental materials courses, and other difficulties, which students encounter during their foundation year, BDS 1st year. A questionnaire was prepared and distributed among undergraduate students at different levels of study year of the BDS program. Six different year study levels were chosen for the current study; the total number of participants was 111. Statistical analysis (chi-square test) was performed on the data collected, using SPSS version 20.0 software. Results showed complete agreement on most areas of difficulties the students encountered during their BDS 1st year study. The majority of the examined students were of the opinion that the difficulties they encountered in their BDS 1st year were not due to one certain subject, such as dental materials courses, but rather because of a collection of overlapping factors that contributed to study difficulties, thereby amplifying their impact on the study and comprehension of dental materials courses. In addition, the examined students showed more interest and eagerness towards acquiring more knowledge of dental materials, particularly towards dental materials II (clinical dental materials). Students consider dental materials courses as a basic introduction to the field of dentistry; besides, a thorough understanding of its various uses is a key factor in excellence in the dentistry field.