Math failure rate high

By Ryan Borba
The Collegian

The majority of Fresno State students enrolled in a required math class fail the course, professors said.

All technical majors, such as engineering, chemistry and physics majors, are required to pass Math 75, also known as Calculus I.

Students and professors at Fresno State estimate about 66 percent of students enrolled in Math 75 fail the class. Students and professors at the university cite lack of preparation from high school, poor study habits and the rapid pace of the course as reasons for such low scores.

Brendan Evans, a senior majoring in economics, said many students are afraid of calculus.

“They do not get over the new terminology and new concepts to allow it to sink in,” Evans said. He said professors telling students on the first day of class that half will fail isn’t very encouraging, but success still comes from doing homework and staying caught up.

“Math is very much practice-based. Students may get a concept in the classroom, but they will certainly lose it if it is not reinforced by homework,” Evans said.

Randy Bowers, a senior majoring in food science, passed the class on his third attempt. He said it was both his and his instructors’ fault.

“I put the blame on both parties. The first time I failed, it was my fault because I was lazy and didn’t do my homework,” he said.

Bowers was not the only one who failed.

“I saw a lot of the same faces the next semester when I took it again,” he said.

Fresno State mathematics professor Merrilee Helmers said she isn’t exactly sure why students fail the class so often, but said about half failed her last Math 75 class.

“I think it’s mostly that the students don’t remember algebra from high school,” Helmers said. “They always do fine on the calculus parts, but you need to do algebra to get a lot of the answers.”

Larry Cusick, former chair of Fresno State’s mathematics department, said many students aren’t prepared for calculus.

“Many students are so deficient in the prerequisite material that the only way for them to pass the course would be to (take) a one-year course,” Cusick said.

Cusick said some students who have taken the prerequisites fail and some students are admitted without even taking them. Helmers and Cusick both said unprepared students face a big problem: the course doesn’t allow time to backtrack.

Bowers faced that exact problem when he took the class again.

“We’d get behind and discouraged,” he said.

Cusick said he has sympathy for the students who are left behind, but said it wouldn’t be fair to the ones keeping pace to spend a lot of time on older material.

“I always feel bad when it happens,” he said, “but there’s only so much I can do.”

Breanna Debler, a junior majoring in civil engineering, said the best advice for getting through Math 75 is to work in groups or go somewhere else to take the classes, such as community college.

Debler said it is frustrating to be an engineering major.

“Our teachers in the math department don’t really care whether we get it completely,” she said.

Engineering students make up about half of the calculus students at Fresno State, Cusick said.

Engineering 1T is a one-unit class created to help engineering students with calculus. Cusick said not nearly enough students use the tutors or his office hours for help.

Calculus professors encourage students to take a two-semester Math 75 bundle where the student is able to spend more time going over remedial material.

Students only receive credit for one course, but have a much better chance of passing this way, professors said.

Fresno State mathematics professor Maria Nogin said students would do much better in calculus if they started their homework early and got help when they needed it.

“It might be completely normal for students to wait two or three hours before it’s due to start their homework of 15 problems, but that’s impossible,” she said.

Cassie Resendez, a chemistry major, said she barely passed the two-semester version of the course, but she liked it.

“We weren’t so rushed. We had time to go over the algebra instead of trying to figure it out on our own,” Resendez said. “Math 75 is very conceptual, so if you don’t fully understand one part, you won’t understand the rest.”

The fact that undergraduates struggle with calculus is nothing new. Cusick said it is a well-documented problem nationwide.

David Meredith, chair of the mathematics department at San Francisco State University, said faculty will never be satisfied with student performance.

“It’s good in a way, although it can be frustrating for students,” Meredith said.

Meredith said that 141 out of 316 Calculus I students, including 47 students who withdrew from the course, at San Francisco State received lower than a C in the course.

He said American students aren’t always as prepared for calculus as foreign students, but most American students are diligent workers who have done what was asked of them throughout high school.

“This poor preparation is a choice,” Meredith said. “Society chose to fund secondary schools inadequately. We get what we pay for.”

Since calculus scores are a problem nationwide, there were many national attempts in past years toward calculus reform. Cusick said the discussions were inconclusive.

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