Nearly one in five University of California freshmen can't pass introductory math — a failure rate that has nearly doubled since the system scrapped standardized test requirements five years ago, and a flashing red signal that the education establishment is selling families a defective product.
The numbers are stark: 17.8% of UC freshmen failed to pass introductory math courses in the 2025-26 academic year, up from just 9.2% in 2020-21, according to EdSource data reported by the New York Post. That 2020-21 year was the last in which the SAT and ACT were required for admission. The failure rate jumped to 13% the very next year and has climbed almost every year since.
This isn't a mystery. The UC system traded objective admissions standards for the politics of equity, and the bill is coming due. Students who would have been flagged by standardized testing as unprepared are now being admitted to prestigious universities and dumped into calculus and precalculus courses they can't handle.
Sonja Shaw, a Republican candidate for California state superintendent of public instruction, put it plainly:
