A UC Berkeley math professor says she has to teach basic middle school algebra to calculus students and blames one policy change

Zvezdelina Stankova, a well-known mathematics professor at the school, has publicly criticized the current admissions process. According to New York Post, she says that a significant portion of her students are failing to keep up with college level calculus. Instead of diving into complex integrals, she finds herself spending her office hours teaching basic fractions and algebra. These are skills you would typically expect students to master during middle school.

Stankova, who earned a PhD from Harvard after growing up in communist Bulgaria, is deeply invested in the quality of math education. She founded the Berkeley Math Circle and a local Math Olympiad for high school students. She feels the current state of admissions is making the campus a laughing stock. She described the process as “less like careful evaluation and more like chance.”

The root of this problem, according to Stankova, is the removal of standardized testing requirements. UC Berkeley phased out the SAT and ACT in 2020. This decision came after Janet Napolitano, the former Homeland Security Secretary for President Barack Obama, overruled a task force that advised keeping the exams.

Why testing requirements disappeared in the first place

The shift was initially linked to COVID pandemic disruptions and concerns over equity. A court ruling later required the university to become test-blind through 2025. A similar breakdown in classroom readiness surfaced when a Texas teacher broke down in tears after asking his senior students to read and write. The data Stankova presents is quite alarming. Before 2020, a diagnostic exam given to Calculus I students showed that 71% were “ready or nearly ready” for the course.

Between 2018 and 2020, only 0.14% of those tested fell below the level of basic algebra. However, the numbers shifted significantly between 2021 and 2023. In that period, only 44% of students were considered “ready or nearly ready” for calculus. By the 2022-23 school year, more than one-third of students in the course had severe math deficits. In fact, zero was the most common score on the diagnostic exam for those students.

This situation creates a difficult environment in the lecture hall. Stankova noted that she is effectively teaching two different classes at once. One group is prepared to handle the material, while the other group requires extremely remedial mathematics. This is a massive issue for a school with an acceptance rate of just 10.5%.

While other elite institutions like Harvard, Yale, MIT, and Stanford suspended testing during the pandemic, they have all since reversed course and reinstated them. Stankova pointed out that UC has “moved in the opposite direction” compared to these peers. There is currently no plan to change the admissions policy before fall 2028. She stated, “Students don’t have that kind of time: They attend college once.”

Stankova is not alone in her concerns. She is one of thousands of faculty members who signed open letters this year. These letters called for the restoration of the SAT and ACT to ensure the most qualified students are getting into the university. UC Berkeley has not publicly commented on the claims.