Colleges across the country are grappling with the same problem as academic setbacks from the pandemic follow students to campus. At many universities, engineering and biology majors are struggling to grasp fractions and exponents. More students are being placed into pre-college math, starting a semester or more behind for their majors, even if they get credit for the lower-level classes.
Colleges largely blame the disruptions of the pandemic, which had an outsize impact on math. Reading scores on the national test known as NAEP plummeted, but math scores fell further, by margins not seen in decades of testing. Other studies find that recovery has been slow.
When I went in to take a chemistry placement test for college all the kids had their calculators out. Then the people giving the test said it was 45 questions in 45 minutes, no calculators. The groans and sound of 200-300 people putting their calculators away is something I’ll never forget.
After about 2 questions I realized I’d never finish in time. I completely stopped doing math and simply picked the answer with the correct number of significant figures. I never saw the actual grading of the test, but I placed into the higher level chem class as a result.