Recently, more compelling reasons have emerged for why professors are urging the University of California officials to bring back standardized testing, as alarming numbers of students are struggling in computer science courses at UC Berkeley.
An investigation by the Daily Californian, the student-run newspaper, revealed that the failure rates in these courses have surged this past spring, surpassing those of previous terms. Specifically, over 35% of students did not pass an introductory course designed to offer a comprehensive yet accessible entry into computer science, a stark contrast to the usual 7% failure rate. Additionally, two other courses experienced noticeable increases in failing grades.
Dan Garcia, a teaching professor at UC Berkeley who instructed two of these courses, attributed the rise in failures to students extensively depending on artificial intelligence tools to navigate their coursework. Certain AI models, like Anthropic’s Claude, are recognized for their ability to generate code.
Garcia reported that around 30 students in the CS 10 course were found cheating on take-home exams. He explained, “In some instances, students are overly reliant on large language models to complete assignments, leaving them unprepared when it’s time for exams.”
Nearly 30 students in CS 10 were caught cheating on take-home exams, he said.
“But in other cases, it’s students who are leaning a little too hard on LLMs to do their work for them, and then at exam time just really aren’t ready,” Garcia said.
Garcia also noted that students are now mathematically underprepared. He was one of 1,300 UC faculty that shockingly said in a letter they’ve been forced to teach “middle school” math in Calculus and other courses.
They blamed a 2020 vote by the University of California Board of Regents to stop requiring SAT and ACT scores in admissions after lawyers representing low-income students argued the metrics were “racist.”
The California Post reached out to the UC system for comment.
Another professor, Gireeja Ranade, told the Californian that one student even told her a linear algebra class at UC Berkeley had an “open-internet, open-AI policy” for homework and exams.
“We really need to make sure that we are preparing our students to be solid, contributing citizens and leaders — these are Berkeley students: not just next year or the year after, but for the next 40 years of their lives,” Ranade said.
