SAN DIEGO – UC San Diego says it’s struggling to deal with a large and growing number of freshmen whose math skills are below middle-school level, leaving many unprepared to thrive at an institution famed for its teaching and research in science, medicine and engineering.
This fall, 665 students – 8.5% of incoming freshmen – were placed in Math 2, a remedial course meant for students who aren’t prepared for a foundational course in precalculus, according to a campus report issued Nov. 6. Five years ago, 32 students, or 0.5% of freshmen, did the same.
In one assessment test, some students failed to answer a simple addition question, and some could not round off the number 374,518 to the nearest hundred…