Did Einstein really fail mathematics at school?

Einstein did not fail mathematics. Historical records show he was strong in the subject throughout his schooling. He did fail an entrance examination at age 16, but he did well in the mathematics and physics sections. Snopes describes the rumor as persisting since at least the 1920s, and reports that later books, newspapers and websites widely treat it as a myth. [1]

In 2022 the Nobel Foundation shared a certificate issued to Einstein at the Cantonal High School in Aarau, Switzerland, when he was 17. Under the school's scale, 6 was the highest mark and 1 the lowest. He scored 6 in algebra, geometry, descriptive geometry and physics, and also in history. His lowest mark was a 3 in French. [2] [3]

In October 1895 Einstein sat the entrance exam for the Polytechnic Institute in Zurich, now ETH Zurich. He was younger than the usual applicant and lacked a school-leaving diploma, but the director allowed him to take the exam. According to ETH Zurich's library, he obtained the best results in mathematics and the natural sciences, but his results in language and history subjects were unsatisfactory, so the overall result was insufficient. He then completed his secondary schooling at Aarau, and a physics professor at the Polytechnic invited him to attend his lectures anyway. [4]

Ripley's, which once spread the rumor, now gives the same account: he excelled in math and physics but performed poorly in non-scientific subjects. [5]

Snopes suggests two possible origins, and presents them as possibilities rather than established fact. One is the failed entrance exam, which was misremembered as a failure in math. The other is a brief reversal of the grading scale at the Aarau school. For a short period 1 became the top mark, so Einstein's top score of 1 in mathematics could look like a failing grade to later readers. The New York Times reported this in 1984, citing John Stachel, editor of the Einstein papers project at Princeton. [1]

Einstein himself reportedly addressed the rumor in 1935. Shown a Ripley's "Believe It or Not" clipping claiming the greatest living mathematician had failed mathematics, he is quoted in Denis Brian's 1996 biography as saying the story was completely distorted, that he had never failed in mathematics, and that he had mastered differential and integral calculus before he was fifteen. Snopes also notes that an earlier biography by Anton Reiser (1930) describes him teaching himself calculus and analytical geometry by fourteen. Ripley's corrected the record on its website in 2024. [1]