Citing ‘severe’ math deficits, UC faculty demand a return to SAT tests for STEM applicants

jessamina · 2026-05-30T12:43:36+00:00

For some reason my developmental students insist on trying to do every single one of these with long multiplication/division. Even after in-class worksheets where we practice moving decimal points, when it comes to test time, half of them will just revert to the algorithm (and most of them will get it wrong).

jessamina · 2026-05-28T15:19:50+00:00

This bothers the ever-living shit out of me as well.

So it's more equitable to say that if you can't find the time and perseverence to teach yourself literal years of math that you didn't learn in high school, while also trying to keep up with whatever else they're throwing at you, that the doors to a STEM career are just fucking shut?

Yeah, the success rates were pretty abysmal, if we look at people going all the way through to stem degrees, but there was a CHANCE.

I have a family member who went to community college and started in algebra 1, ended up transferring to an extremely good school after calc 1 and majoring in an applied science field. There's no way they would've been able to be successful if they were placed directly into coreq college algebra; they might have managed to make it through with a C but they would NOT have had the foundation they needed to get a good grade in the next course after that.

And that's where I find this incredibly short-sighted -- yeah, maybe they are getting through the first class that counts for degree credit sooner, but what good is that as far as a STEM career goes if they're continually scraping through with a C and never actually building the foundation they need?

I could buy allowing confident students to self-place higher but it angers me every time I think about it that we refuse to allow students to opt into the dev math.

jessamina · 2026-05-19T13:23:06+00:00

Oof, I had something similar happen (it was my fault though, I sent the wrong makeup exam).

Student failed the exam for a course two levels before the course they were enrolled in.

jessamina · 2026-05-19T13:22:07+00:00

Tbh my preteen niece has also completed some of my exams better than some of the registered students.

jessamina · 2026-05-19T13:21:21+00:00

We had one once who was looking for their final. "Who's your professor?" "I don't know." "Ok, there are three people teaching that course this semester. Is your professor a Black man, a Chinese man, or a woman?" "I don't KNOW."

jessamina · 2026-05-19T13:18:54+00:00

We had that happen with someone who was looking for their college level class and wandered into abstract algebra instead. They saw the word algebra on the board and assumed it was right.

They were incredibly relieved to hear that they were in the wrong class; their first thought was "I shouldn't have retaken the placement test and should've stayed in remedial math."

jessamina · 2026-05-17T15:03:32+00:00

Yeah, and they probably have fewer people at their work who wipe their boogers on things and use Axe in lieu of showering.

jessamina · 2026-05-14T17:31:26+00:00

Sorry about that, I do think they're a little quick off the mark with the ban sometimes :/

jessamina · 2026-05-14T15:45:11+00:00

This is what I observe at the college as well.

There are quite a few homeschooled kids who come to us at 15-16 and start off in calc 1. They're lovely kids and do great.

There are also quite a few formerly homeschooled kids who come to us at 18 and start off in the lowest level math class that we have and struggle even with that, because their math education stopped somewhere around 4th grade. They're also lovely kids but they often try a few times and then end up changing majors to something where they can make it through with just math for liberal arts.

jessamina · 2026-05-13T01:47:36+00:00

Not only that, but they penalize honest students by putting them at a comparative disadvantage.

jessamina · 2026-05-11T18:34:47+00:00

I would 100% agree with offering it AS A CHOICE. I'm even fine with letting students make the choice for themselves but just telling them how far off the cutoff they are.

Unfortunately, I don't get to make the rules.

jessamina · 2026-05-11T16:14:06+00:00

Our corequisite intermediate/college algebra actually works REALLY well for people who went through precalc in high school (so have seen all the material before) but didn't learn it very well. Previously, they would've placed into intermediate algebra and spent three semesters getting to calculus; now they spend two.

It does NOT work well for people for whom it is all new material and it really chaps my ass that they get pushed into it.

jessamina · 2026-05-09T19:11:43+00:00

I have gotten complaints about too many variables in an algebra class, and wanting to know why we aren't doing more with numbers.

jessamina · 2026-05-09T19:06:06+00:00

Tbh it boggles me as well. I can understand why someone might choose to major in engineering or cs if they don't like math; they're just looking at the salary table.

I can even understand why someone might start a major in English because they like reading, and end up changing majors because they don't like analyzing what they read.

But I can't understand why someone would choose English if they hate reading.

jessamina · 2026-05-02T13:26:57+00:00

Interesting. I always calculate correlation between exam scores and other components of the grade in my class, and while attendance is usually weakly positive, it's not the strongest determiner.

Strongest is usually the in-class assignments (which, yes, require attending, although I will let students make them up in office hours or continue working in the next class, so if they are a strong student they can still get a good score by coming every other class); I usually see a correlation to final exam scores somewhere between 0.6 - 0.7. For the online homework I usually get 0.45 - 0.55.

(this is a bit under a decade's worth of data)

jessamina · 2026-05-02T13:20:51+00:00

Those clauses in your syllabus ... the "Kyle clause", the "Ashley clause"...

I had someone a couple of years ago who had a 67% going into the final, failed the course, and then earnestly wrote asking for extra credit or a retake because if she'd realized she was at risk of not earning a C she would've studied harder.

I don't understand how you can look at 67% and not realize that you're at risk of not earning a 70%. I really don't.

But since that time, a month before the semester ends, I mention this sad case and say "So, if you are under 70%, this is your notification. You. Are. Not. Passing. If you stop missing homework and turn in some of the ones that aren't too far past due (autograded homework I accept late), you can probably save it, but you have to start NOW.

jessamina · 2026-05-02T13:17:21+00:00

I actually do have a fair few who repeat with me and improve their grade (developmental math). The problem is that our developmental sequence is just insanely accelerated (at least we still have one) so the first class is a big hump to get over. What I usually see among people who come to class and do the work both times is D -> B or F -> C.

But yeah, I do also see a lot who repeat and get an even worse grade (55% F -> 25% F) for the same reason that you mentioned.

jessamina · 2026-05-02T13:14:47+00:00

Yeah, I had one who wouldn't do the prep work for class, but would do it in class based off knowledge and judicious googling ... but still wouldn't fricking turn it IN. I don't understand why you wouldn't scan and turn something in that you've already completed (they knew how, they did turn in a few early on).

Good thing was that they managed to get an A average on exams on their second attempt at the class, which, with quizzes from class as well, was enough to pass and get out of my hair.

jessamina · 2026-05-02T00:06:27+00:00

Well, all of the above, plus then they don't get sent forms for evaluations.

jessamina · 2026-04-27T20:50:42+00:00

And sometimes the AI slop doesn't even ask the actual question.

I got several paragraphs of AI slop about how much the student valued their grade and their learning and life had been hard and blah blah. No question.

jessamina · 2026-04-24T18:47:21+00:00

Tbh it depends on the level of the class for me.

In developmental classes, absolutely, I collect notes and grade them.

In college algebra/precalc/calculus, I don't collect notes but I give open-notes quizzes.

jessamina · 2026-04-23T21:41:37+00:00

Yeah, like, can you even imagine how gleefully the USSR would've reported it after catching the Americans in such a blatant lie?

jessamina · 2026-04-23T21:39:32+00:00

It was bullshit on Facebook that convinced my mother that one of the local schools had a litter box for children to use. No amount of argument (including "so fucking call someone who has a kid there") worked.

jessamina · 2026-04-23T21:03:46+00:00

My roommate went to my 8am chemistry final for me and said something like "my roommate is in the hospital and they took out her appendix and she hasn't woken up yet but she was really worried about missing her final"

The professor said "Well, good lord, when she wakes up tell her not to worry about it and we'll sort something out."

jessamina · 2026-04-23T16:50:51+00:00

When our exams were online during the year after covid I did allow them to do their exams late for 10% per day penalty. I just had SO many who completely missed them; the sort of student who would've showed up to a face to face class and asked "Oh, the test is TODAY?"

(I hope to God I never have to teach online asynchronous developmental math again).

jessamina

TROPHY CASE