{"slug": "berkeley-students-flunk-gentle-course-at-shocking-rates-professors-blame-ai", "title": "Berkeley students flunk ‘gentle’ course at shocking rates — professors blame AI", "summary": "More than 35% of University of California, Berkeley students failed an entry-level computer science course this spring, a sharp increase from the typical 7% failure rate. Professors attributed the spike to students over-relying on artificial intelligence models to complete coursework, leaving them unprepared for exams. The failing grades add to concerns from UC faculty who have urged the reinstatement of standardized testing, citing declining math skills among incoming students.", "body_md": "# Berkeley students flunk ‘gentle’ course at shocking rates — professors blame AI\n\nSee more of our coverage in your search results.\n\n[Add The California Post on Google](https://www.google.com/preferences/source?q=nypost.com)\n\nThere’s now more evidence why professors are [begging University of California overseers](https://nypost.com/2026/05/27/us-news/uc-professors-say-theyre-teaching-middle-school-math/) to reinstate standardized testing — as shocking rates of students are failing computer science courses at the University of California, Berkeley.\n\nThe percentage of failing grades were higher this past spring than in previous semesters, according to an analysis done by the student newspaper [Daily Californian](https://www.dailycal.org/news/campus/academics/failing-grades-soar-as-professors-see-greater-ai-usage-dwindling-math-skills-in-uc-berkeley/article_16fad0bf-02cb-4b8c-8d88-888ffd9f8608.html).\n\nMore than 35% of students failed an entry-level course described as “a gentle but thorough introduction to computer science,” the analysis said, when previously the failing rate was typically 7%. Two other courses also saw significantly higher failing grades as well.\n\nUC Berkeley teaching professor Dan Garcia, who taught two of the courses, told the Californian that he blamed students heavily relying on artificial intelligence models to get through the class. Some models, such as [Anthropic’s Claude,](https://nypost.com/2026/05/28/business/with-nearly-1-trillion-valuation-anthropic-dethrones-openai-as-most-valuable-ai-company/) are well known for being able to create code.\n\nNearly 30 students in CS 10 were caught cheating on take-home exams, he said.\n\n“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.\n\nGarcia 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.\n\nThey blamed a 2020 vote by the University of California Board of Regents to [stop requiring SAT and ACT scores ](https://nypost.com/2021/05/16/u-of-california-to-nix-sat-act-in-settlement-with-minority-students/)in admissions after lawyers representing low-income students argued the metrics were “racist.”\n\nThe California Post reached out to the UC system for comment.\n\nAnother 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.\n\n“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.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/berkeley-students-flunk-gentle-course-at-shocking-rates-professors-blame-ai", "canonical_source": "https://nypost.com/2026/06/04/tech/uc-berkeley-students-flunk-intro-course-at-shocking-rates-due-to-ai/", "published_at": "2026-06-04 21:34:40+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-06-04 22:04:16.438217+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-ethics", "ai-policy", "ai-tools"], "entities": ["University of California, Berkeley", "Dan Garcia", "Daily Californian", "Anthropic", "Claude"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/berkeley-students-flunk-gentle-course-at-shocking-rates-professors-blame-ai", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/berkeley-students-flunk-gentle-course-at-shocking-rates-professors-blame-ai.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/berkeley-students-flunk-gentle-course-at-shocking-rates-professors-blame-ai.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/berkeley-students-flunk-gentle-course-at-shocking-rates-professors-blame-ai.jsonld"}}