Even before classes went online, many college students took precalculus and calculus multiple times before passing. I had one student who aced all his math courses including Calc 1 & 2. I figured the others would do as well, but they were not as well-prepared (that’s another story). They hated those courses, dropped them, and switched majors. But, many of their friends stuck with it, taking precalculus and/or calculus twice before passing. Then, I read an article that said many students (including foreign students) take those courses multiple times before passing. Ironically, my student who did so well in calculus has never needed it for his job in a STEM field.
Thanks for posting that info; it’s very helpful to hear and I’ll pass it along to my son. There’s no way my son would switch majors; he absolutely loves Computer Science and gets great grades in his CS classes. He’ll get through all the Calc eventually (he’s halfway done!) and then never look back.
Luckily this is the United States and there are always second chances. . .although I’ve warned him there’s only so many times a college will allow Calc attempts. I suspect they will offer many attempts though as his particular campus has had 5 straight years of declining enrollment (too many homeless druggies in his formerly cute college town but that’s another CA issue).