Okay so sit back and read this post when you are free. Lately, I have been working very hard and I had an AP Chem test yesterday on which I did horrible! I might end up with a C or a D. However, for so many years I have considered myself good at chemistry and yesterday shook my confidence, I don’t know if it’s my fault or the teachers because all we do is read the chapter on our own and that’s it! She just tells us a line or two. i know you are like this is a college level class, what do you expect??!! I have been a straight A student and I don’t want my applications to look ugly during the last year of high school. can you guys tell me what should I do? Also, she is going to hate me after this test.
Teachers do not ‘hate’ students who do badly on a test. AP Chem is hard and you have to learn to think and study differently.
So, go meet the teacher now- don’t wait to get the test back. As much as you can, figure out what went wrong before you get there. Did you understand the material, but had trouble actually doing the problems? did you run out of time? did you see material you didn’t recognize? the more you can say specifically about what part didn’t work, the more your teacher can help. Ask what you can do to be readier next time. If you are to read the chapter, do you do all of the problems in the chapter? Teachers don’t expect everything to go smoothly 100% of the time, but they do expect you to do the work to figure out what went wrong and be willing to work to make it right. This is great practice for college, so use it!
What if she doesn’t reply back to me and says that she will get back to me later and that later is never?
It is early in the year. There is time to catch up. I think that you should find some sort of tutoring. This might mean getting this teacher to actually earn her salary if she will help you after school, or might mean hiring someone else.
I have had high school teachers as well as undergraduate and graduate level professors who were superb at presenting ideas in ways that allows students to really understand the material. I have also had incompetent/professors at each level. Just because “this is a college level class” doesn’t justify the teacher not teaching. However, you might run into a few incompetent teachers at any level of education, and need to figure out how to deal with them.
@lazyintrovert1999 You need to try to know if she reply back or not.
Interesting response: my post said ‘go meet her’, yet your response seems to be that you would contact her by email. Why wouldn’t you just get to class early/stay after- a time that you know she will be available?
So my question back to you is, what will YOU do to keep YOUR straight-A average? Will you let anxiety (or embarrassment?) get in the way of not only learning how to do better in this class, but learning how to advocate for yourself? Just how real is the ‘lazy’ part of your screen name? and btw, introversion doesn’t get you out of having to pick yourself up by the scruff of the neck and go do the hard thing (but it does mean that after you do it you can go someplace soothing and recover).
@DadTwoGirls, it seems a mite harsh on the teacher to say “getting this teacher to actually earn her salary” and call her incompetant based on the little info we have. “All we do is read the chapter on our own” and “She just tells us a line or two” could be an exact, accurate description, but it seems very unlikely that an AP chem class consists of the students sitting in their desks reading to themselves, with the teacher essentially not speaking for the entire period. Given the OPs screen name, it could also be that the homework direction was ‘study chapter 7’, with the expectation that actual study (such as doing practice problems) would be done. Or somewhere in the middle.
I actually met her. There was no way I was talking about an email. Lazy is just a fun part, seems like you were quite offended by my reply. You should have asked me if I was asking about an email or not. I ended up a A- on the test btw. Thank you for your help though.