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Crazy biology teacher: Should I drop? HELP!!? (1 Viewer)

Uniqueness

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Get the syllabus and basically teach yourself?

OR, you could possibly get a tutor/another Biology teacher to help you out if you are really struggling. Even if you aren't, second opinions can be invaluable in terms of study or going over assessments. You shouldn't have to drop a subject because the teacher is awful. Make use of free periods if you have them to ask the Science staff questions. Don't drop it, it'll only increase stress levels if IT ends up being counted towards your atar.
i had a similar situation with my bio teacher especially the part about contradicting themselves anyways i would stick it out because in comparison to your other subjects it is relatively easy especially if you are good at chemistry you may just have to put in extra effort at home thats what i did and it worked for me depends if you think you can do well in it or not and if you can afford to put in extra effort for it

The problem with self teach is I have nothing to verify myself with. I keep thinking I might teach myself the wrong thing :/

I tried going to other teachers in the science department but then she caught me and went bonkers telling me I shouldn't be asking other teachers when SHE's my "real" teacher -_-

I'm not sure I quite understand about the stress levels of IT? I was told repetitively about how easy the course was xD

Looks like no one especially OP recognised my post here.
I noticed. I think you might've missed my reply. I don't find Biology easy as some people seem to do, despite it being a "meant to self teach" subject.
 

SpiralFlex

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The problem with self teach is I have nothing to verify myself with. I keep thinking I might teach myself the wrong thing :/

I tried going to other teachers in the science department but then she caught me and went bonkers telling me I shouldn't be asking other teachers when SHE's my "real" teacher -_-

I'm not sure I quite understand about the stress levels of IT? I was told repetitively about how easy the course was xD



I noticed. I think you might've missed my reply. I don't find Biology easy as some people seem to do, despite it being a "meant to self teach" subject.
Young warlock, you must trust in your own judgements. Whatever you decide, I think you already know what you need to do...
 

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Keep until the trials I would say, if you think you can manage it. Take advantage of the summer break. You must pick yourself from the ground and rise and high as the centre point tower. Also, there are alot of Biology resources out there to help you. (Hint hint..PM your favourite robot.)
Trials aren't till another year. We have assessment task coming up and she's proving very uncooperative with my questions. All I have now is to ask BOS people and hope and pray >_< I plan to take advantage of 3/4 of the summer break, where I would definitely start from scratch since learnt virtually nothing this whole time. (Hint hint.. my favourite robot ignore my PM >_<)



I had the same trouble with my Modern History teacher I didnt like her teaching style, our personalities clashed however I was able to move out of her class only after a boring coversation with the head of HSIE and having to get my parents to write in a letter saying that they approved of my decision and blah blah blah, however you cant do that. You do however have the option if your school offers it to drop Biology and pick up Seinor Science I have many friends who did that and it was their way of having 12 units to have a fall back and be able to drop a subjet they didnt like for various reasons. Its no to late yet to do this but you will have to do a little catch up. As soon as you can discuss the matter with whoever deals with this stuf at your school and if they refuse there is nothing better that a letter from a parent to convice a teacher to let you do what you want to. Dont go in there and say its because you dont like the teacher because that will make things more difficult for you. If you do this you will have 2 fallback units which in the end does leave you less streswsed when it comes to the final cruntch of the HSC
I had considered Senior Science at a point but it is offered as distance education at our school due to its poor popularity. Plus you have to pay which I'm not willing to.

My teacher is practically the same except he's a male.
Although the teacher is terrible, I'm breezing through it because biology is pretty much a self taught subject. You don't need a teacher except for the experiments but all you have to do to survive is ignore the teacher, write your own notes; read your biology resources beforehand and you're pretty much safe for the HSC
Well HSC wise you might be good but if she doesn't like you your assessments aren't exactly cheery looking either. Even though she says she doesn't, she'll probably pick up a mistake that doesn't even exist. I need to get my rank and marks up to top 3 if I want to get an ATAR of 90+ especially at my school rank of a pathetic 550ish.
 

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I had a similar problem with my chem teacher. He played favorites soo much, he couldn't teach, he hated me and was very narrow minded with his methods, which basically lead me to hate the subject and leaving the classroom very angry most times. So i dropped it, best decision i made, especially because i had 13 units with MX2 so now doing 11 units and very happy :)
<---- Is slightly shocked.

You're the first to tell me to drop xD but yea I used to like Biology a lot more. I was even coming first at the start of Prelim, until I started to know her more and more. We kinda clashed personalities because I don't put up with her crap and my rank just kept dropping lol
 

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What uni course are you considering? Do you need Bio for uni?
I want to do Pharmacy or something science related, but it doesn't matter because Biology is apparently easy to do a bridging course for...
 

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Young warlock, you must trust in your own judgements. Whatever you decide, I think you already know what you need to do...
I stopped trusting my judgement even since I made so many mistakes :p Which is why I get other people's judgement and judge from there instead.
 

emilyo

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When I was in year 12 I had a Chem teacher who was absolutely useless. She basically hated our class and really was just not good at teaching. She more or less told us that she 'gave up on us'. I stuck the class out and ended up doing better than she expected although really not as well as I could have done with a better teacher. I was lucky in that two of the other science teachers gave me a lot of help . Rather than let this bitchy teacher drag your marks down you should just make it a personal vendetta to get the best damn bio marks you can. Believe me it feels fricken awesome to show up a teacher that doesn't like you. If you were coming first in the prelims there's no reason why you can't meet your goals! And believe me from doing biomed subjects in uni year 12 biology is extremely helpful! It's very straight forward to get good marks in your biology HSC exam as well. Just tick off every syllabus dot point and you're good to go.
 

SpiralFlex

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When I was in year 12 I had a Chem teacher who was absolutely useless. She basically hated our class and really was just not good at teaching. She more or less told us that she 'gave up on us'. I stuck the class out and ended up doing better than she expected although really not as well as I could have done with a better teacher. I was lucky in that two of the other science teachers gave me a lot of help . Rather than let this bitchy teacher drag your marks down you should just make it a personal vendetta to get the best damn bio marks you can. Believe me it feels fricken awesome to show up a teacher that doesn't like you. If you were coming first in the prelims there's no reason why you can't meet your goals! And believe me from doing biomed subjects in uni year 12 biology is extremely helpful! It's very straight forward to get good marks in your biology HSC exam as well. Just tick off every syllabus dot point and you're good to go.
Wonderful piece of advice.
 

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When I was in year 12 I had a Chem teacher who was absolutely useless. She basically hated our class and really was just not good at teaching. She more or less told us that she 'gave up on us'. I stuck the class out and ended up doing better than she expected although really not as well as I could have done with a better teacher. I was lucky in that two of the other science teachers gave me a lot of help . Rather than let this bitchy teacher drag your marks down you should just make it a personal vendetta to get the best damn bio marks you can. Believe me it feels fricken awesome to show up a teacher that doesn't like you. If you were coming first in the prelims there's no reason why you can't meet your goals! And believe me from doing biomed subjects in uni year 12 biology is extremely helpful! It's very straight forward to get good marks in your biology HSC exam as well. Just tick off every syllabus dot point and you're good to go.
This is about the best encouragement I've ever had ^_^ Do you also have advice on how to get the best marks when you don't know what she's marking you on? If that makes any sense? Generally before an assessment task I would ask what sort of task it is and prepare like wise, but now she doesn't really answer my questions or just give me vague answers...
 

SpreadTheWord

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Biology like many subjects is an easy subject providing you have an interest in it. My English class had the worst teacher imaginable. I learnt nothing, despite working myh butt off. The teachers rarely attended, and when they did, it was sheets. Now i absolutely despise English to it's inner core. I struggled with it originally, but with this added situation, i was completely screwed. So i said to myself F**K the teacher, and went to others. Im hoping, that i should be able to achieve a reasonable mark of 70-75 (btw i do advanced) - i know this is completely crap compared to what you guys are aiming for, but hey hoo - my high marks will hopefully come in Bio and History, and possibly Physics.

But there were certainly favourites in the class, and it pissed me off.

So amidst the BS i've posted, think of the syllabus as your best friend, and there are tons of notes on here. If you went hard out in the summer, i bet you could learn 75% of the course.

GL, and tell the teacher to get Fk'd.
 

avro

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The problem with self teach is I have nothing to verify myself with. I keep thinking I might teach myself the wrong thing :/

I tried going to other teachers in the science department but then she caught me and went bonkers telling me I shouldn't be asking other teachers when SHE's my "real" teacher -_-

I'm not sure I quite understand about the stress levels of IT? I was told repetitively about how easy the course was xD



I noticed. I think you might've missed my reply. I don't find Biology easy as some people seem to do, despite it being a "meant to self teach" subject.

Try looking for a Biology textbook that follows the syllabus? Maybe ask someone who just finished the course if there any really good textbooks they would recommend. That way, you'll have notes under syllabus dot points. I know that's how they work for humanities subjects most of the time (I'm in a similar situation for Modern). Maybe say you don't always understand her teaching methods, and that you're seeking clarification because it's your HSC and you don't want to mess it up by not seeking help when needed. Better yet, get an outside tutor. No one has to know. Didn't you say that you don't always understand the concepts or something along those lines in IT? If you're really not understanding something, won't that increase your levels of stress if you know for certain that it will be counted in your ATAR, and therefore may be reduced because you may not get the marks you wanted? Anywayyyy, it's up to you. There's many different ways around it, you should not have to drop because of a crazy teacher.

Also, have your parents written a formal letter of complaint? I can't remember if you said they have. It might not do any good, but just a thought.
 

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Try looking for a Biology textbook that follows the syllabus? Maybe ask someone who just finished the course if there any really good textbooks they would recommend. That way, you'll have notes under syllabus dot points. I know that's how they work for humanities subjects most of the time (I'm in a similar situation for Modern). Maybe say you don't always understand her teaching methods, and that you're seeking clarification because it's your HSC and you don't want to mess it up by not seeking help when needed. Better yet, get an outside tutor. No one has to know. Didn't you say that you don't always understand the concepts or something along those lines in IT? If you're really not understanding something, won't that increase your levels of stress if you know for certain that it will be counted in your ATAR, and therefore may be reduced because you may not get the marks you wanted? Anywayyyy, it's up to you. There's many different ways around it, you should not have to drop because of a crazy teacher.

Also, have your parents written a formal letter of complaint? I can't remember if you said they have. It might not do any good, but just a thought.
The difference with IT is that I have a superb teacher who would sit there for hours if needed to explain to my dense brain a single concept if I don't understand. He would try different ways of teaching and explaining. With my biology teacher she would just repeat the same thing over and over again. I get that it's suppose to help but if I don't get it the first time I don't see how I'm going to get it the second time if all you're doing is repeating..

I would rather not get my parents involved, I doubt it would do much anyway she and the Principal are 'old friends' as she likes to inform everyone.
 

avro

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The difference with IT is that I have a superb teacher who would sit there for hours if needed to explain to my dense brain a single concept if I don't understand. He would try different ways of teaching and explaining. With my biology teacher she would just repeat the same thing over and over again. I get that it's suppose to help but if I don't get it the first time I don't see how I'm going to get it the second time if all you're doing is repeating..

I would rather not get my parents involved, I doubt it would do much anyway she and the Principal are 'old friends' as she likes to inform everyone.
Well, at least IT may be a little bit difficult but you clearly have an awesome teacher who actually cares about you and your results, and is willing to put in the effort to help you achieve. It sucks that your Biology teacher is unwilling to diversify her teaching methods to suit the student. As I said, maybe get a tutor? But if your Biology results are starting to look really detrimental to your ATAR than drop it, chances are with 13 units it won't count anyway. It's not good to spend so much extra time on something if you don't need it/won't count.

Good luck anyway :)
 

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Well, at least IT may be a little bit difficult but you clearly have an awesome teacher who actually cares about you and your results, and is willing to put in the effort to help you achieve. It sucks that your Biology teacher is unwilling to diversify her teaching methods to suit the student. As I said, maybe get a tutor? But if your Biology results are starting to look really detrimental to your ATAR than drop it, chances are with 13 units it won't count anyway. It's not good to spend so much extra time on something if you don't need it/won't count.

Good luck anyway :)
Yea I was thinking about the might not count thing so I was just gonna keep it, but not spend too much time on it. Not sure if that's gonna work though. Oh well, I'll just do really well and annoy the crap outta her :p

Thank you all for your insights into my pathetic dilemma.
 

jnney

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Yea I was thinking about the might not count thing so I was just gonna keep it, but not spend too much time on it. Not sure if that's gonna work though. Oh well, I'll just do really well and annoy the crap outta her :p

Thank you all for your insights into my pathetic dilemma.

I feel the exact frustration as you do for physics. I may drop it.
 

SpiralFlex

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According to my sources, she has dropped it. :(

How is your Biology discrepancy going?
 

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