I have an APUSH teacher who seems to only take off points for no reason. When asked, she either vaguely answers or becomes very condescending and avoids answering the question. She refuses to give full scores on homework assignments, and last time, no one in any of her classes got a 7/7. Everyone in her classes always jokes about her flipping a coin when deciding who gets a 6/7 or 5/7 because it’s completely random. She doesn’t ever tell us why we missed points. I might be just bitter, but in my eyes and my classmates’, she seems to take off points just to make her class difficult as there’s another APUSH teacher who has been teaching for 30 years and his class averages are lower (because he has harder tests but also is a generally better teacher), so people used to say how her class was SO much easier than his. She seems to want to change that by giving us the same tests as his classes (without the lectures or help that he gives his classes) so our class averages are around a 70% while his are around 80%. How should I approach work in this class?
I felt compelled to respond to this post because I am also dealing with a similar teacher. At my school, homework is mostly graded on an effort basis, but this teacher doesn’t believe in 100’s, so he gives 95’s instead. However, many of my peers use homework to inflate their grade because his quizzes are killer. If he confronts me with a poor grade, I just work harder. So, my point being, when life gives you challenges, just push yourself.