UC First-Year Introductory Math Failure Rates Nearly Double in Five Years: UCLA Reaches 10.7% as the SAT/ACT Debate Returns
Data released by the University of California Board of Regents' Academic and Student Affairs Committee show that the share of UC first-year students who received a D or F, withdrew, or did not pass introductory mathematics classes has nearly doubled in five years. According to UCLA's student newspaper, the Daily Bruin, reporting on October 22, the figure at UCLA for the lowest-level calculus, precalculus and preparatory mathematics classes rose from 6.2% in the 2020-21 school year to 10.7% in 2025-26; across the UC system it rose from 13% to 18% over the same period. Grades in other first-year courses, including STEM courses, remained stable during that time.
Introductory math courses are a small share of enrolment: 4.3% of UCLA first-year lower-division course enrolment in 2025-26, and about 5% across the system. Other measures of incoming students have kept rising: 66% of students who enrolled in 2025 had a high school GPA of 4.00 or higher, up from 52% in 2015, and first-year retention reached a record 93% in 2025. "By conventional measures, incoming students remain academically strong," the committee said in its report. "These indicators obscure challenges in introductory mathematics."
The data arrive as the UC Academic Senate weighs whether to recommend that the regents reinstate standardized testing requirements for first-year undergraduate admissions; its final recommendation is due by June 2027. The University of California has not used SAT or ACT scores in admissions since 2020. In May, more than 2,300 STEM faculty signed a letter urging the university to reconsider its test-free policy, saying students lack math readiness; in June, social sciences and humanities faculty signed a separate letter asking the UC to consider restoring the verbal reasoning components of standardized tests.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 加州大学洛杉矶分校（UCLA）Royce Hall。照片：Beyond My Ken，CC BY-SA 4.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Royce Hall at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Photo: Beyond My Ken, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
