UC students are increasingly failing introductory math courses, UCSB reports highest pass rates

The number of first-year University of California students failing introductory math classes has doubled in the past five years. However, UC Santa Barbara has reported the lowest failure rate, with an 8.2% failure rate for the 2025-26 academic year. 

The UC-wide percentage of UC freshman who received a D or F, withdrew or did not pass an introductory math class in the 2025-26 academic year is 17.8%,an 8.6% more than the 2020-21 academic year, which reported a 9.2% failure rate. This nearly doubled increase has coincided with the UC deciding in 2020 to no longer require the SAT or ACT for admission. 

The UC defines introductory math courses to be calculus I, precalculus and preparatory courses. In addition to UCSB having the lowest failure rate among the UCs, it is the only campus that does not offer precalculus. 

UC Merced has consistently had the highest failure rate out of the UC campuses, with a current introductory math failure rate of 36.4%. However, UC Riverside has had the sharpest increase in failure rate, from 5.2% in 2020 to 20.5% in 2025. 

The average UC grade point average (GPA) in introductory math courses has also decreased from 3.18 in 2020 to 2.71 in 2025. UCSB has the highest average introductory math GPA out of the UCs. 

Despite this increase, the first-year retention rate for science, technology, engineering and math majors has remained consistently high at around 94% over the past seven years. 

A version of this article appeared on p. 1 of the Oct. 21 print edition of the Daily Nexus