alegnagogo said:
People who went on to very good colleges (Duke, Penn, Cornell) struggled in her class. She doesn't have a passion for teaching and it was obvious. And PLEASE don't assume that I didn't take responsibility. It's not like I didn't try. She offered extra help after school, and when I would go, she would get angry and just yell at her students because they didn't understand. One day, she insulted a boy after school and called him an idiot. I had to go to another science teacher to get help, and even when I understood the stuff with the other teacher, I would do poorly on the tests. I would do almost a hundred practice problems and still fail the tests. After half-way through the year I decided that her class wasn't worth the effort. I was senior and already admitted into colleges, and there was no purpose putting effort into a class that I knew I wasn't going to do well in. Especially when I didn't have an interest in the course. I got all As my senior year except for physics. I got a C. Of the 18 people in my class, no one got an A. The class average was a D. Many people complained to the principal about this teacher, but the only reason why she hasn't been fired is because she has a PhD, and the teacher's union makes it hard for her to get fired. Only two students took the AP test for the class, and one of them got a 1 and the other got a 2. Not only was she a horrible teacher, but she was not a nice person. My view of physics is ruined because of this woman. I understand that it's a hard course, but if you put in so much effort, did poorly, and didn't learn a THING, you wouldn't like the teacher either.
Don't judge someone on one post on the internet.
A few things I'd like to note.
First, just because you go to a good college doesn't mean you're smart or are capable of doing physics.
Second, most professors do not have a 'passion for teaching'. Get over your need for an instructor who has 'passion for teaching', because many lecturers will consider it secondary (or even tertiary) to their research.
Third, some small quantity of professors are rude enough to call their students idiots. You will likely encounter one, probably without realizing it because you'll be too busy taking charge of your own education - won't you now?
Fourth, just because you don't have an interest in the course doesn't mean you shouldn't care about it. I can't say I'm particularly interested in my materials lab course next fall, but y'know, I'm going to suck it up and do it.
Fifth, you will encounter professors who grade hard and refuse to inflate. This is to be commended, not lamented. Props to your teacher for having the sack to fail a class in the age of student entitlement (which you
very clearly demonstrate).
Sixth, I encountered a professor pretty similar to your teacher in my introductory physics classes in college. He was a hard SoaB, and while a contrast exists in the fact that he was quite a nice guy, he was very much a "throw you to the wolves" kind of professor. I thank the Sky Fairy every time I run into a mechanics problem and go through the steps I learned from his class. Many of the pieces of advice I give fellow students comes directly from him or from struggling through his course. No, it wasn't a pleasant experience at all, but it taught me more than any course I've taken so far. I wound up with a B in both courses, but dammit if I didn't work my butt off for it. A very clear progression can be seen from my low original marks in Physics 1 to my incredibly strong finish in Physics 2 (I, in fact, scored higher than all other students on the final exam). Sink or swim.
I'm sorry you were unable and unwilling to rise to the challenge set by your teacher. Surely if you'd bothered to crack the book open, you would have absorbed more knowledge than "F=ma". At the very least, you should have grasped some conservation of energy, some vector algebra, an understanding of torque, a fairly firm grasp on friction, some of the basics of spring physics, and a decent understanding of Newtonian gravity, hopefully including some shell theory since that was actually a really interesting idea. Superposition should also be in your mind as a really important concept. You should probably also know some angular analogs of translational quantities - or at the very least be able to understand what I just said.
To be perfectly blunt, I hope you wise up in college. The world doesn't need a(nother) lazy physics student who expects his or her hand to be held.
