How to Deal With: Bad or Unfair Teachers.

There is a laundry list of reasons as to why a normally excellent student might have an inconsistently low grade. While common knowledge is to explain any family or health tragedy, fewer people explain inconsistent grades. And when they do explain them, they often just give an excuse without proper support.

The biggest mistake you can make on these academic hiccups is to leave them alone. You have places to explain yourself, use them. Each piece of information on your application serves to flesh out the puzzle of who you are, and who you might become. So if there’s a little black mark on your record, make sure that there is a reason for it somewhere else.

Firstly, don’t start with excuses. The most common response to a “bad” or “inconsistent” grade is: “Oh I had a bad teacher” or “Oh my teacher hated me.” These are subjective things, and the admissions committees are going to look at them, without proof, you will probably not be taken seriously.

How to remedy the “I had a bad teacher” grade?
Prove that it was probably the teacher’s fault.

Step 1: Excel in related courses.

For example: I am a psychology major at my university. The research component of my major is in 3 parts. Statistics for Psychology (where you learn the theory of the math you need to use), Research Methods (where you learn the practical applications of the statistics and learn to conduct ethical experiments and analysis, and learn to write articles of your experiments in APA style) and Advanced Research (where you take a research class in the area of psych you plan on going into).
The lowest grade I have received in college to date was a C in Statistics for Psychology. I have not gotten a grade below an A- in my major besides that C.

So how do I prove that that C was a fluke due to a bad teacher? I explain the grade in 3 parts.

1.     The professor was on his last semester of teaching at my university and was not leaving happily. He was unwilling to provide basic help (like office hours).

2.     I had previously taken a statistics course and received an A, as well as receiving a 5 on AP Statistics in high school.

3.     In the class where I was supposed to apply what I had learned in statistics, I received an A.

I do not ever say that I had a bad professor, because that comes off as blaming someone else. But I usually say, “The grade in that class was not really indicative of my abilities in statistics” and then give those 3 reasons. Whoever I tell this to almost always concludes, “It sounds like you just had a bad professor.”

So if you had a bad teacher who didn’t properly teach? Do well in all of the other classes you take in that subject. If you got a C in biology freshman year, get As in chemistry, physics, and AP Bio. The lucky thing with science is that you basically start with a clean slate every year.
History is the same thing; you’re going to learn different things in each class.

Math is the only case where this can really stunt your growth, but you can always seek out extra help and tutors (I had a friend who was constantly teaching me the Algebra 2 that I was supposed to be learning in class, because the teacher was not great).

This is the same for “the teacher hated me,” excuses. I will say that this excuse can only be used in classes where the grading is subjective. In a lab science course where the exams were all multiple choice, the teacher’s opinion of you matters very little. In an English class where your grades are all based on essays? You might get away with it.

But the same principle applies; show that the grade was a fluke by excelling in all related classes and tests.

For example: Lets say that you are taking AP Language and Composition junior year.
Your teacher hates you for some unknown reason, and whatever you try they just will not give you anything higher than a B- on your essays. How do you combat this?

1.     Get a 5 on the AP Language exam. This demonstrates that perhaps your high school class was harder than the actual AP standards.

2.     Get As in all of your other English classes. If you have a random B- thrown in amongst a sea of A’s (freshman, sophomore, and senior year), they will notice something was wrong.

3.     Demonstrate English and writing ability on your SAT/ACT. If you’re receiving 800s on your critical reading and 750s on your writing, that also indicates that perhaps you just had a tough teacher.

In the case where you really feel you are being mistreated with your grades in a subjective subject, you can always ask to meet with them and have them tell you what exactly is wrong.

Maybe they don’t like your attitude, and you can work on that together. Perhaps they want you to change the style of your writing.

Example: I loved to write unconventional essays in English because I almost always had read the books before, but one teacher I had hated when we did our own analysis of the books. I went to talk to her, because I didn’t understand my grades. It turned out that she thought anyone who did their own analysis was using spark notes or other types of aides instead of paying attention in class, so I could sort of understand where she was coming from. I decided to bite the bullet and just write what she told us to write. It sucked, but my grades improved dramatically once I started keeping my weird opinions to myself.

You can also bring those papers to the head of the department or other teachers who teach the same class and have them look at it. If you are truly receiving unfair grades to the point of ruin, you can try to fight it.

A bad grade due to a teacher shouldn’t keep you from excellence. But this is, of course, assuming it’s truly not your fault. Dig deep and make sure it’s nothing you’re doing. Talk to the teacher. Seek extra help.

Overall, the show don’t tell principle applies. Don’t tell them that a teacher hated you; show them that the grade was inconsistent with everything else you have done in that subject.

Always explain what happened, it could keep you from the “reject” pile.