<p>Hi,
So at this point I have a 4.0 GPA and am top of the class. However, I am in an AP Course this year that isn't hard, but is certainly being graded harshly by the teacher. It's unbelievable. Everyone is failing the class, except for me (86) and another student with a low C. She won't curve and vows it is because our class doesn't study hard enough. I don't know what to do because I deserve an A and fear the grade could drop lower when the material gets more advanced. What should be my course of action because this teacher is not giving fair grading?
I don't want it to possible tarnish my transcript which I think if very strong.</p>
<p>"I deserve an A " That’s your opinion, to be frank. And you might get a non-4.0. You want sympathy? </p>
<p>Unfair? You said the class is being harshly graded. I get that. But if your 86 reflects the stated criteria, I don’t see it’s unfair per se.</p>
<p>You want a 4.0 or do you want to master your coursework? The two are not the same. </p>
<p>And while a 4.0 is great achievement, it’s not everything. Nor are you entitled to it.</p>
<p>I’m a bit more sympathetic regarding your frustration - not about busting your 4.0, but about working your hardest, being at the top of the class, and still not making an A. I wonder if this teacher is just trying to make a point here - that AP classes should be college level and too many kids are taking it to make their transcripts look good without actually expecting to do the work? She may be trying to make sure that next semester and next year, the only kids who take the class are really up to that standard. The question is, how did people do on the AP exam in this class last year? Lots of 4s and 5? or a lot of 1s, 2s and 3s? If it’s the latter, then I don’t blame her for raising the bar significantly. If, on the other hand, many kids got 4s and 5s, then she is needlessly adding stress - but that seems unlikely.</p>
<p>There are a few things you should do. Find out from the seniors who had this teacher last year if, in fact, she ended up flunking everyone - it seems very unlikely because the school would be inundated with complaints if 50% of the kids failed a class or even got Cs. I’m betting that in spite of her avowal, this didn’t happen or you and your class-mates would have heard about it from last years seniors and avoided the class like poison. I would also go talk to the teacher and find out what you personally can do to improve the quality of your work. Let her know that you care about doing the best possible work and want advice on how to do better. Lastly, at S’s high school, any kid who gets a 5 on the AP exam, automatically gets their grade changed to an A for that semester, even if they were making a B or C on the classwork. The teachers assume you mastered the material if you got the 5.</p>
<p>Also, remember that it is a college level class–and in college professors do not give out A’s because students worked hard.</p>
<p>So the teacher is treating you as if you are college students.</p>
<p>Also, as M’smom says, check out the reputation of the teacher. My guess is that if she is experienced in teaching the class, she knows what she is doing.</p>
<p>If you are getting the highest grade, the other students in the class are obviously taking even bigger whacks to their gpa–so you will still be top of the heap.</p>
<p>I want to add that there is a lot of pressure on schools to show a high level of AP enrollment as a measure of their ‘educational quality.’ The result is stuffing AP classes with kids who would have been better off in the regular or honors courses. (At our local school, they eliminated honors so all the kids are either regular class or AP!). The result is the dumbing down of AP classes everywhere. </p>
<p>In fairness, this is in response to schools that used to play ‘gate-keeper’ on AP courses, only allowing those they decided where ‘top’ students to take the AP courses. One of the results was that minority kids weren’t getting put into AP resulting in a high degree of segregation in come schools: White and Asian kids in AP, Black and Hispanic kids not.</p>
<p>Keeping standards high for AP, while encouraging every student to challenge themselves to the max, is a difficult task for every high school. Sometimes teachers get frustrated and decide to do a bit of manipulating themselves by making it hard to succeed in an AP class. Often the teachers feel they are being judged wanting when less motivated kids in the class don’t do well on the AP exam.</p>
<p>Actually, are school only directs top kid to be in ap courses. It a prep school and this is rare. The class averag on the last Test was failing: no curve. I understand that he is trying to make this college like but bottom line is that she isn’t. I came to her to ask about how she wants the answers to be stated, because I honestly UNDERSTAND THE TOPIC IT’S JUST THE QUESTIONS ARE HARDER IN TESTS THAN OTHERWISE. And I was asked by the class to do this, why I don’t know. So when I asked she was a little annoyed because it wasn’t her tutor day and yelled at the class today because we did not “study hard enough” and needed to be doing more. The class was a problem for kids last year, but kids were not quite stellar students. The class was not made harder because the level was already high. Actually, as stupid as it sounds, the kids in te course, because they were seniors, quit on it and didn’t even try on the exam, as I am told.i went to tutoring today and it was of little help as she barely helped me understand what it is she wants. She was helping kids who struggled in other classes more than me, who wants an A. Listen, I understand if I didn’t get the material or didn’t try hard enough, but I am exhausting my avenues and many know she is a terrible teacher for grading. However, she is the only teacher who teaches the course.</p>
<p>And you better get off of your power trip T26, I know I am deserving because. Have done everything I can and when I am 20% higher than a failing class of good students who are also trying hard and get no curve, there is a SERIOUS issue. Sorry, there is an entitlement when teacher doesn’t teach what she wants and she hasn’t. The whole class missed the same three questions because, and she herself admitted it, there were multiple answers that made sense, but only one that was specific enough (do I agree? No because I threw out her answer choice as wrong because it did not fit the definition stated in the book the same way the other answer did) and things she is marking wrong would be marked correctly on the exam, at least according to my ap review book answer explanations. Tell me I’m not deserving but this is a serious problem. In my opinion and I am doing everything, I am not acting entitled, although the I very well may be.</p>
<p>Given the situation, and assuming she really is a poor teacher, is there a reason why you have to take this class? Sounds like you might be better off with a free period, self-study and then taking the AP Exam. Or taking the class at community college. Or not taking it this year and taking something else instead. Those are really your only choices besides sticking it out and trying to get whatever you can from the experience. And ask her if she’d consider converting second semester grades to As if the students get 5s on the AP exams, as is done in some schools.</p>
<p>Well the reason that isn’t an option is because I have sent transcripts to early admission schools already, it was a mistake but honestly I thought this course was handled until I got the test GRADED (even after taking the test I thought I had a 100%). So if I dropped it the issue would be worse.</p>