Intellectual education is an activity aimed at personal development, including such intellectual qualities as competence, creativity, a unique mindset, self-regulation, etc. Intellectual education is an integral part of the education process. The tasks of intellectual education are determined based on students’ intelligence, the level of their compliance with the requirements of professional activity. The authors conducted an empirical study of the peculiarities of mental experience of agricultural engineering students to assess the development of operational characteristics of thinking, determine the relationship between the parameters of intelligence and the level of self-regulation, the correlation of empirical data with the criteria of intellectual education. The study involved 97 students of the Institute of Mechanics and Power Engineering named after V.P. Goryachkin of Russian State Agrarian University – Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural Academy. The results of the empirical study demonstrated a direct relationship between the levels of development of thinking operations and components of volitional regulation of activity. The peculiarity of intellectual development of future agricultural engineers is insufficient formation of a number of intellectual skills, which hinders the formation of intellectual qualities of a professional. To ensure effective and successful engineering activity of graduates (training area 35.03.06 Agroengineering), it is necessary to expand students’ outlook, enrich general mental experience and form a set of professional knowledge, as well as train basic thinking operations.