May 28, 2026
SAT Wars: The Math Strikes Back
Citing 'severe' math deficits, UC faculty demand a return to SAT tests for STEM
Campus math panic erupts as commenters battle over tests, grade inflation, and who’s really unprepared
TLDR: UC faculty want SAT or ACT scores back for science and engineering applicants, saying too many students are showing up weak in math. Commenters are split between blaming grade inflation and calling the crisis overhyped, turning admissions policy into a full-blown comment-section brawl.
The University of California is being dragged back into the great testing war, after more than 600 faculty members said too many STEM students are arriving unable to handle basic math. Their big complaint: since the system stopped requiring the SAT or ACT, professors say they’ve been stuck reviewing skills that should have been learned years earlier. One report from UC San Diego and a Berkeley faculty letter poured gasoline on the fire, with claims that some first-year calculus students are showing alarming gaps.
But honestly? The real show is in the comments. One camp is yelling “grade inflation exposed!” and arguing that a perfect high school grade point average can hide wildly different skill levels depending on the school. A popular hot take says ditching tests may have backfired on the very students it was meant to help, because a cheap test book is still more honest than inflated report cards. Another commenter went full hardline teacher mode, basically saying: if students don’t meet the class requirements, why are professors reteaching middle-school math at all?
Then came the pushback. A current UCLA student flatly said they’ve never seen this supposed “middle school math” rescue mission and accused critics of exaggerating the crisis. Meanwhile, one parent dropped a mini horror story about students skipping math finals while barely understanding the material, which commenters treated like Exhibit A in the case against modern grading. The vibe? Half moral panic, half “we told you so,” with a side of academic reality TV.
Key Points
- •More than 600 University of California faculty members called for SAT or ACT requirements to be restored for STEM applicants starting in fall 2027.
- •The faculty letter said test-free admissions have not reliably measured math readiness and that some instructors are reteaching middle-school-level math.
- •The letter cited Berkeley calculus diagnostic data showing that at least 20% of first-semester students from fall 2021 to fall 2023 had math deficits.
- •UC suspended SAT and ACT requirements in 2020 and planned to eliminate them entirely by 2025, citing concerns about bias against students of color and lower-income applicants.
- •Several elite universities, including Harvard, Brown, Dartmouth, Penn, Stanford, and Caltech, have restored standardized testing requirements for 2024 or 2025.