Varying mathematical skills, rising dropout rates and growing numbers of first year students confront the universities with major organizational and pedagogical problems. This paper describes an innovative way of teaching and learning that claims to improve this situation by specific bridging courses particularly including self-diagnostic e-assessment and supporting self-regulated learning. In order to give an overview of our whole bridging-course programme we will discuss our material with regard to content-related and pedagogical aspects as well its integration in various course scenarios. Focusing on selected results of an accompanying evaluation study we will finally substantiate the acceptance and success of our courses and highlight some interesting findings regarding our learners.