Patronizing? I thought we were talking about students who were admitted, but are deemed by the very institution admitting them to need remedial level instruction. Remedial - which I took to mean they lacked the foundational level skill sets they should have mastered in high school, before they can take standard college level classes. To me this means it has been determined by the school that they are -not- ready for the actual college level material. (( They are not taking college course level -which also means, to me, they are less qualified than someone who meets or exceeds that threshold (in that area) and is ready for college level material))
Isn’t that what this topic was about?
So a kid who has taken Quantitative reasoning, Stats, Calc etc in HS (and especially if it’s “AP” designated) and has passed those classes with “C” or above (though to get into top flagships its likely to need to be at least a B) or say at least a “4” on the AP for those courses or a bare minimum Math SAT of say 550+ for non-stem majors which don’t require heavy quant ability, then it should follow they’d be unlikely to need ‘remedial’ math.
Since UC schools apparently don’t utilize standardized test scores or AP scores, I would guess this means relying on course rigor. You’ve either taken your math classes (with corresponding grades) or you haven’t.
If you are at a high powered high schools with resources and AP advanced mathematics, but you haven’t completed algebra/pre-calc - the question would be why not - and are you capable? An SAT math score of 550+ would probably indicate you could start at entry level college math (not remedial) or you could take a school administered placement test to see if you could test up and out.
If you are at an under powered high school with few resources, and have taken the highest level math(s) available there, even if they are not “AP” CALC AB or “Stats”, but rather an “A” or “B” in Algebra/Precalc, then you might not need an SAT score to demonstrate readiness, but certainly if you have both - the course(s) and a math SAT above threshold, then you shouldn’t need ‘remedial’ courses. School placement testing (and subsequent course performance) should be able to verify the correlation between using course achievement (level), course rigor (AP/IB), AP test scores or SAT/ACT scores and preparedness.
When you strike out SAT/ACT standardized testing and/or when you strike out AP scores you lose some ability to identify preparedness. And the further when you roll back off course rigor (AP/IB) or even course levels, because the student either didn’t attempt it where available or it just wasn’t available, I don’t know how you can reliably say “yeah, you’re ready for college math”.