The Top Ten Most Failed Classes at UVU

Kayla Tanuvasa

September 6, 2019

schedule 4 min read

Fall has brought in Utah’s sporadic rains, bumper to bumper traffic and all the stresses of the new semester. Teachers, fellow classmates and the course itself can all influence the way a class pans out, but it seems that some of UVU’s classes are overwhelmingly difficult for UVU students. 

Utah Valley’s Institutional research group has collected data taking into consideration groups of students and percentage rates to list the most failed classes at UVU by percentage, the top ten of which are represented here. In making this list, a minimum of 100 enrolled students was set to weed out niche classes. Course descriptions for each class were found on UVU’s course catalog. This list represents the Fall 2018 semester.

1. DGM 2120-Web Essentials (32.65% of students failed)

  • This is a 2120 class which “focuses on the fundamentals of web programming languages and examines various ways to build an accessible web page.”

2. HM 1010-Intro to Hospitality Industry (30.17%)

  • Starting at the very first class to the Hospitality Management Major, this class provides “a basic understanding of the lodging and food service industry,” complete with lecture, field trips, guest speakers, film and tapes.

3. CS 1400-Fundamentals of Programming (26.59%)

  • This class is the first of this list to include prerequisites and actually requires the students to program a number of assignments that demonstrate their understanding of “problem solving, program structure, data types, decision logic, loops, functions, input, output and arrays.”

4. MATH 1050-College Algebra ( 25.34%)

  • With prerequisites of other math classes, this class covers “inequalities, functions and their graphs, polynomial and rational functions, exponential and logarithmic functions, systems of linear and nonlinear equations, matrices and determinants, arithmetic and geometric sequences, and the Binomial Theorem.”

5. ENGH 0890-Literacies and Composition Across the University (24.82%)

  • As an 0890 class, this class is meant to “help students bridge the gap between personal and academic writing and practice ways their personal literacies.”

6. ZOOL 2325-Human Anatomy Laboratory (24.74%)

7. ZOOL 2320-Human Anatomy (24.48%)

  • We put these two classes together because the lab part of this class is required. Studying the anatomy of the human body is not easy. Students are expected to study “the names, locations and functions of body components.”

“This class was very fast-paced and the tests were very detailed and often times asked trick questions to see if we could catch the details…For those who scored poorly, I feel it came down to the time they had to read and study for lecture while spending time in the lab.” Amanda Riley, nursing student

8. CS 1410-Object Oriented Programming (22.22%)

  • Another entry level class, this class includes “pointers and dynamic memory allocation, linked lists, inheritance and polymorphism, the development of graphical user interfaces, operator overloading, memory management” and more. 

9. MUSC 1400-Music Technology I (22.12%)

  •  Focusing on the fundamentals and usage of technologies in music, this class studies “the history of analog and digital recording and the emergence of synthesis.”

“In a way I’m both surprised and not that this class is one of the most failed. I had a great teacher, but this class really pushed me to learn so much more about audio, production and computers from that class and help me develop the skills necessary to get my Music Tech certificate.”Ryan Humphrey, a Journalism major with a certification in Music Tech

10. IT 1510-Intro to System Administration- Linux/UNIX (21.09%)

  •  This class uses the Linux system and introduces the UNIX Operating System and “aids the student in the development, understanding and working knowledge of the details of the Linux Operating System, memory organization, disk architectures and demand paged virtual memory.”

Although this information may seem daunting or even discouraging, a passing grade is still very much achievable.

Correction: Originally this list was presented without the provision of a 100 student enrollment minimum.