Sarah had 9 pennies and 9 dimes. How many coins did she have in all?
Solve (10 − 2)(4 − 6x) = 0
California officials expect math students in public school to know the first answer by the end of second grade—and the second answer by the end of eighth grade. But when some incoming college students were asked these questions, about 20 percent could not correctly count the number of coins, and over 80 percent were unable to solve the equation.
A report released last week by the University of California San Diego, which has about 45,000 students and is one of America’s highest-ranked public universities, said that the number of entering first-year students whose math skills fall below middle-school level “increased nearly thirtyfold” from 2020 to 2025—to roughly one out of every eight new students.
The deterioration of basic academic preparation has left incoming students “increasingly unprepared for the quantitative and analytical rigor expected at UC San Diego.”
