With such a high failure rate, the teacher doesn't have to look to the left or the right to see a failure -- she just needs to look in the mirror.

I ******* hate teachers that are like that. Like it’s some ******* badge of honor how hard their class is or how many people fail tests. I had a pre-calc and calculus teacher in high school who was absolutely amazing. He made all the concepts SO ******* understandable, and most everyone passed his classes and a lot of us went on to take his AP Calc class - and passed with 4s and 5s (5 is the highest score you can get). I ******* love that man to this day. On the other hand, my freshman year, I went to a shitty school and had a shitty gym teacher. I think the class was called Team Sports. She had some kind of grudge against students and was an UTTER BITCH who liked to ******* fail people. We sat in the class and learned the history and esoteric rules of sports and were rarely allowed into the gym to actually play them. That’s cool - I like learning - but she actively WORKED to trap us with double standards and give us shitty grades. I remember we had some stupid-ass word search to do one day, and she FAILED the majority of the class for crossing through the words rather than circling them. I circled mine in the puzzle, but crossed out the words on the list. She failed me too. When we all told her she never gave us the instruction to circle rather than cross out, she dismissed us saying “Then why did some people circle?” We could not fight her. She constantly did shit like this with every assignment. She was an utter ******* bitch. Like a ******* **** who I loathe to this day. I found out later that she died after I graduated high school, and I was HAPPY. I was like good that ******* bitch got what she deserves. Yes, I hate myself for thinking that, but she really really left a bad taste in my mouth, and she seemed just ******* evil. Like Professor Snape as a dick of a teacher docking points because he hates Gryffindor. This woman hated children and had no business teaching. Sorry for that vent. I’ve been out of high school over a decade and a half, but I think that woman scarred me. I was a good student who got mostly A’s and I managed to get a B in ******* gym. **** YOU MISS HAWKINS, I HOPE THE WEIGHT OF A THOUSAND STUDENTS THAT HATED YOU TORMENTS YOU IN YOUR GRAVE. TL;DR - Only bad teachers try to fail students on purpose. **** them. OP, I suggest that you report your teacher, or talk to your parents to report her, or something. When I think back to high school, I wonder how teachers like that got away with it, and I wish we students took action with the administrators. Good luck and try your best. Even try getting on her good side if that helps. Hope you pass.

I don’t get it, is she gonna fail people on purpose?

I would have stood up, excused myself for interrupting her, and said, "I will not waste my valuable and expensive tuition on inept instructors", and left the room to go drop the class. Then file a complaint as Marcella suggested. In college is where I learned to do things like that. I had a French class professor from Lyons, France for a class called "Conversational French" at a 400 level. The final was each student had to lead a 30 minute discussion in French on any topic of the student's choice. On the last day of class, I spoke on the Italian Renaissance. She announced to the class she was going to fail me as she believes that everyone knows the French Renaissance to have been far sujperior. I told her it may well have been, but I wasn't discussing the French Renaissance. I also pointed out that her own description of the conversational class was "a mon avis" ("in my opinion") and that she was stifling my free speech. I said that if she wanted us to lower our discussions to her xenophobic and narrow vision, she should have told us in advance so we could prepare. Then I said that if she had a problem with what I had just said, of if she failed me, we would meet in the dean's office ot discuss this further. And left the room. (By the way, everything I said to her was in flawless French - I wish I could manage that today!) I received my grades and for the Conversational French "A Mon Avis" class, I had an A! (Top grade possible.) She later told me she was impressed with my rant and the quailty of my French!

I have been there. I had a professor once tell an entire class that he had to make the material harder because he got penalized do the high amount of students the past is glass with an A.

As a teacher myself, teachers like this tick me off. The mandate of every teacher should be to help as many students pass as possible, and to help them do the best they can. Intentionally making your subject borderline impossible (especially for bragging rights) is asinine, counter intuitive and goes against what being a teacher is all about. So unless she's made the course extremely challenging because she had to, because the school or local teaching authority told her she had to, then she needs to get in the bin.

I had teachers who refused to give A's & A+'s. Absolutely hated that. I could earn it on every exam and they'd dock you the final grade based on their belief that none of their students deserved an A or an A+. Class participation, homework, Quizzes, Exams... All top marks (A+) and final grade...a freaking A-... When asked what I lost points on, they'd say "Oh, I don't give A's or A+'s."