Teacher misread the clock, causing student to rush and fail his midterm, he comes back with a vengeance on the final: 'I thought I only had 5 minutes left'

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Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Dec 10, 2024 4:00 PM EST

When a teacher asks a student what they can do to better prepare for the next exam, there are a few standard answers they are probably expecting to hear. The most obvious answer would be to study harder. Another would be to work on memorizing key terms, doing more practice, reviewing the homework assignments, etc. The last thing a teacher expects to hear in this scenario is this Redditor's answer. He said that all he planned to do next time was bring a watch.

That's because, during the midterm, the teacher made a mistake and told students they had five minutes left. This caused the Redditor to rush and leave early. After his departure, the teacher realized her mistake and gave the rest of the class those precious 20 minutes that the Redditor was not properly afforded. So, he vowed to bring a watch next time and insisted to his professor that this would be sufficient for him to ace the test. 

Keep scrolling below to see how that shook out. For more stories like this, check out this post about an entitled six-year-old on a plane.

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    This image is for illustration only, and the subjects are models; the image does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

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    Strict professor wants me to prove that I'm trying to improve my grades? I'll give her just that
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    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.
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    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
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    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 have.
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    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.
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    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,
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    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.
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    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
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    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
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    mad at me and said that if I didn't do anything else I would fail the final for sure, but I assured her that the watch was enough for me to do better.
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    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.
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    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?
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    mjchambers0904 I always show the university-wide official clock on the projector so the students are always on the same page.
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    [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
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    affected by her mismanagement. She was too proud to take responsibility.
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    C [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.
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    It's an utter embarrassment that a maths teacher can't read a clock.
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    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.
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    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.
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mathematics school micromanager students Professors midterm reddit thread Reddit math final exams exams
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