<p>I don't know what is with my chemistry teacher. do any of yours <em>teach</em>? This whole year has been hell--I WANT to learn, I really do, and it's my first year EVER in an honors science course, but she makes it so difficult! Over half the class is failing, and even the kid everyone KNOWS is going to princeton can't understand or help. Many kids cry in frustration after her tests. She says she will be there for review in mornings or help with homework but "forgets" or snaps angrily why we don't understand it. </p>
<p>Look, I gave up and went to another source: a Yale grad who came back to start his own tutoring/ACT training/counseling service, and even with his help I am barely managing my B and HE looks at my tests sometimes and says "This isn't in the notes she gave you or in your book". </p>
<p>Thank goodness the school year is almost over, but I have to ask: was there any problem with your science teachers? Because in my WHOLE highschool (of about ten science teachers), only one is remotely helpful and she's this sweet old lady who teaches basic science. This entire year has been a struggle for me, who likes to learn and hates to have apathy...but this is too much. </p>
<p>I agree that all my high school science teachers sucked pretty bad... in 13 years I never had a truly outstanding science teacher. </p>
<p>I guess all the people who are really passionate and knowledgeable about science or engineering go on to pursue lucrative careers in their field, whereas there are plenty of people qualified in english, history, and math who go into teaching because there are fewer job opportunities.</p>
<p>^ Totally agree. The one I have this year is funny...well at least that's what everyone in my school thinks. I mean he curses at us and gives us the finger...which students find quite humorous. I, on the other hand, don't understand why everyone likes him. The average grade on EVERY SINGLE test this year has been a C. That's just ridiculous.</p>
<p>isn't a c supposed to be the average grade though? A "C" is a passing grade, and is supposed to be average. B = above average. A = exceptional. at least that's what it used to be...perhaps cc is different</p>
<p>cursing and flicking you? that's just wrong though. </p>
<p>sucks about the teacher, seraphyes. obviously if the tests don't cover relevent material there's nothing you can particularly do...read that whole textbook? haha. it's good that you went to the tutor. complain to the teacher, ask her when she taught you this or that on the test, and arrange individual meetings with her? i can't think of anything else.</p>
<p>Yeah, my chemistry class was basically self-teach, the teacher had a doctorate from an ivy league school but explained everything so much harder than the book did.</p>
<p>Heh, my chem (and AP Bio) teacher didn't really teach either. He usually went off on random tangents, like how much he hates Indiana (went to Notre Dame and Indiana University), nuns, and soccer. It's not that he wouldn't explain stuff, it's just that he pretty much forced you to ask questions, but since he was intimidating, it was sometimes hard to ask. On the plus side, it prepares you for professors who can't speak English :p.</p>
<p>Our science department is alright. I would say my science education so far has been decent. I feel really bad for one of our chemistry teachers. She's a bit confusing at times but she's very willing to help. People always make fun of her right in front of her face but she doesn't realize it. My friend also told me they use to break equipment last year in their class...</p>
<p>Our sole science teacher is pretty good. He was a nuclear engineer first and he's really sarcastically funny. One girl from his class ended up getting accepted into Berkeley's super-selective chemical engineering program. We have endless political debates, too....kind of fun.</p>
<p>My chem teacher went crazy on us. She decided to use textbooks that were completely harder than AP, and went in so much detail. We would have 3+ hour lectures at a time. Hardly anyone understood her, but I guess she taught us all we needed to know...</p>
<p>Omg, for a second I thought you went to my school. I landed with the WORST Chemistry teacher in my school EVER!!! She can"t teach and most of the students are failing too!! She doesn"t even teach all the material, I wish I had the chemistry teacher that teaches the honors student SAT material or the cool teacher who knows everything about Chemistry?? Why her!!!</p>
<p>A bad thing about having a teacher that knows "everything" about chemistry. They tend to be very hard... we only have 5/20 people legitimately (>70%) passing the class.</p>
<p>Holy cow...it's like...they took one person, stuffed them into a cloning machine, and then forced their spread to the rest of the United States to prey on unsuspective students who would otherwise be somewhat intelligent in a science class. </p>
<p>13 more days...13 more days...then i can have the sweet old lady. <3</p>
<p>my ap chemistry teacher is amazing. :) he's hilarious, likes to pick on everyone (but in a good way, of course lol) and is an awesome teacher, imo. 70% of his students get 5's on the ap exam (and a LOT of kids get 800s on the sat ii chem), so that should count for something! doesn't give any homework either, it's basically you do the problems for YOURSELF, so you understand the material once exam time comes. we have labs about once a week/two weeks, and usually everything goes well too =) it was an amazing class, i'm glad i took it.</p>
<p>however, my physics teacher just plain sucks major ass. during my guidance counselor meeting, i was explaining why the only c on my report card was due to physics, and he nodded knowingly "ah, so it's basically a self-taught class..." WELL, if you KNOW THAT, why don't you just DO something about it!? we basically watch pointless movies for about 70% of the time, he tries to explain homework problems 10% of the time (but fails miserably... like stops midway to figure out wth he did but then is like OH i see... but we don't at all), and the remaining time is spent doing pointless worksheets that don't even correlate to the material that we're learning IN CLASS. </p>
<p><em>huff puff</em> you can tell i'm really annoyed by this class. his tests are crazy hard and he's satisfied with an AVERAGE of 60. then he gives crazy amounts of homework that he never teaches and expects us all to finish by next class... ughhh.</p>
<p>but yeah. heh. a lot of my science teachers have been crappy, but i've had a few good ones here and there.</p>
<p>Oh wow, this is really surprising. I consider my chemistry (regular/AP) teacher to be one of the best teacher in highschool. She's really organized, enthusiastic (about both chemistry and teaching), and very nice and helpful. I guess I'm kind of lucky one to have her as my chemistry teacher, considering how many of you guys havd/had horrible ones.</p>
<p>But contrast to that, my AP bio teacher is about as horrible as what you guys say. He DOESN'T teach the class, and he lets students who are having hard time reading the textbook teach a chapter, and even though if he teaches, he generally goes over a summery in each chapter, and blames us for scoring low on the test. I was really excited to learn biology, but now even plants make me want to shoot myself.</p>
<p>My chem teacher has his degree from Princeton and he has his phD and whatnot, so he's pretty detailed. He's definately over qualified to teach in my podunk public schoool.</p>