14 DAY TRIAL // A professor who was supposed to teach an Introduction to Chemistry course to a group of undergrads at a community college apparently taught the wrong course during the fall 2013 semester.
A former straight-A student attending Lonestar College in Texas claims that shortly before final exams, the teacher admitted to the entire class that she had mistakenly been teaching general chemistry all semester instead of an introductory-level course.
As Daily Mail informs, Lauren Firmin is an over-achieving straight 4.0 student, so she was pretty upset when she received an F grade right before the final exam. She said she had struggled all semester in her introductory chemistry class but understood why she had troubles with that particular course when her teacher made the confession.
“I was getting 40’s on every test. I studied as hard as I could, did everything in my power to try,” Lauren said.
However, professor Thao Shirley Nguyen denies Firmin's allegations, although multiple students say she admitted teaching the wrong course in front of the class.
The students also say that Nguyen told them she would add extra credit to boost their grades and compensate for her mistake.
Still, Firmin said that even with the extra credit her 4.0 average was ruined (her F grade became a B).
“4.0 students, we are really stressed out altogether, but this just added to it to see what I have been working for, for two years destroyed,” Firmin added.
She has already appealed her score in the course and asked school officials to delete the B grade from her record, but her request was turned down.
Meanwhile, officials at the Lonestar College-University Park in Harris County also deny the accusations, saying that Shirley Nguyen had been teaching from the 1405 Intro to Chemistry textbook, not the curriculum for a more advanced chemistry course, as the students claimed.
“They were taught the right class. [The professor] followed the syllabus and taught from the 1405 textbook. I wasn't there. You weren't there and I can't comment what someone may have said in class,” spokesman John Powell said, according to USA Today.
Firmin complained to the head of the science department at her college, and one email she received in response to her grievance read, “This was not intentional on Ms. Nguyen's part. She was new to the introductory level of material and did not realize it until just a week ago.”
I guess that explains everything.