''Some professors really shouldn't teach': Student gets bad grade on midterm because teacher made him rush, cue malicious compliance for the final

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Dec 17, 2023 8:00 AM EST

Students are not always the primary reason for getting poor grades. Sometimes, it can be stifling extracurricular commitments, overbearing parents, absent parents, a lack of access to proper resources and technology, etc. But sometimes the reason is even simpler. Sometimes, it's just the teacher. 

This could be the result of a professor doing a subpar job giving lessons or failing to give students a proper understanding of the course material prior to assessing them. In this case, the professor's mistakes were far less complex. Here, we have a professor who told students they had five minutes left to complete their midterm exam, causing them to rush, when in reality, they had 20 minutes left. That's a big difference, and it wasn't because the professor had some sort of ulterior motive. No, it was simply because she misread the clock. 

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  • 01
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    via Nguyen Dang Hoang Nhu

  • This thread was posted to Reddit's r/MaliciousCompliance subreddit by u/ttbmips, who got a bad grade because of the portions of the test he had to rush to complete during those five minutes. When the teacher decided to give potential extra credit to students who implemented a study plan to prepare for the final, OP decided that the only thing he needed to improve his score next time was a watch of his own. His teacher gave him a hard time about this, but in the end, OP made his point, aced the final, and got the extra credit too. 

    Keep scrolling below for the full story. When you're done, check out this post about some top “first world problems.”

  • 02
    Strict professor wants me to prove that I'm trying to improve my grades? I'll give her just that M OC When I was a freshman in college I had a maths teacher who was very strict about how she taught and how she expected us to learn. For example, she would force students to take notes and if they didn't she would make them leave.
    via u/ttbmips
  • 03
    During our midterm exam, someone asked how much time was left and she said 5 minutes. At this point I was only about halfway done with the test, so I rushed and finished it barely in time. Me and most other students delivered the test and left the room. When I checked my phone, I realized there was another 20 minutes left. The students who hadn't finished in time told me that after we left, she realized that she read the clock wrong, and gave them another 20 minutes that me and the others didn't
    via u/ttbmips
  • 04
    I've always been pretty good at math, but obviously, after rushing half the test I didn't get a good grade. The part I didn't rush was perfect though.
    via u/ttbmips
  • 05
    The next class, after showing us our results, she said that we needed to develop a strategy to improve our grades. She said that if we created a plan, stuck to it, and provided evidence of us doing it, she would give us some extra credit. What she expected us to do was say something like "I'll practice every week" and submit pictures of us doing it as evidence, or something like that.
    via u/ttbmips
  • 06
    Now, while I didn't blame her for reading the clock wrong, I did blame the fact that I thought I only had 5 minutes left for not doing well on that test. I was confident that I could have gotten a perfect grade on it if I had the extra 20 minutes. And so, what I said I would do is "bring a watch to the next exam". Was it an arrogant thing to say? Yes, but I also thought it was stupid to follow along with her plan to micromanage our studies. She got mad at me and said that if I didn't do anything
    via u/ttbmips
  • 07
    A few months later, on the day of the final, I submitted a picture of a watch on my wrist as my evidence for sticking with the strategy. I got a perfect grade on the final. Since my strategy for improving my grades worked, she had to give me extra credit, not before arguing that I didn't deserve it, of course.
    via u/ttbmips
  • 08
    TexasYankee212. In every classroom I have ever been in, there was a clock on the wall that all could see - so teachers could begin and end classes on time. Is that not a thing anymore? 5.9k Reply Share
    via u/ttbmips
  • 09
    mjchambers0904 I always show the university-wide official clock on the projector so the students are always on the same page. 756 Reply Share
    via u/ttbmips
  • 10
    [deleted] What an entitled teacher! Couldn't admit her mistake and give you extra time to finish the exam, instead wants to gaslight you into thinking you needed to take on additional study efforts because of a grading that was directly affected by her mismanagement. She was too proud to take responsibility. 687 Reply Share
    via u/ttbmips
  • 11
    [deleted] Good you did that. Everybody who didn't get that extra 20 mins should have done the same. You're good, would've been talking right to the department chair. 403 Reply Share
    via u/ttbmips
  • 12
    It's an utter embarrassment that a maths teacher can't read a clock. 164 B Reply Share :
    via u/ttbmips
  • 13
    CanWeBeDoneNow. Why leave before she called times up? I understand rushing to get something down but then go back and work until she calls time.
    via u/ttbmips
  • 14
    Tinstam Some professors really shouldn't teach. Had this one guy for Linear Algebra that would constantly ask students broad, unhelpful questions just to make fun of their answers. Also just generally confused students in a class most of my peers called "black magic".
    via u/ttbmips
  • 15
    He was a terrible teacher, who had a rep among other professors. My real analysis professor once went on a rant about the LA professor.
    via u/ttbmips
  • 16
    I don't usually like to be that guy who is always correcting the professor but I did it each and every time he Dude did not like me. But I still work at that uni, and he's been fired (from tenure), so that's fun. Tup.
    via u/ttbmips
  • 17
    LeviJNorth. I'm sorry about this. It worked for you because you were a talented and determined student, but that's not how it should work. There is no place for a teacher's ego in the classroom.
    via u/ttbmips
  • 18
    mi Shurdus I remember having a physics teacher who always said 'I won't subtract points for an answer if you answer wrong because I phrased the question poorly'. So one test he had this elaborate introduction of a question. His first question was (a) draw a picture. Obviously he wanted us to draw schematics of his elaborate setup he described. I however drew a flower and sun. He kept his word and I got full marks for my answer.
    via u/ttbmips

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FAILS malicious compliance malicious-compliance-reddit petty revenge teacher Professors reddit thread Reddit Terrible Teacher math malicious compliance reddit college exams
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