Student: Prof Taught Wrong Course All Semester

Lauren Firmin says her grades suffered due to teacher's mistake
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 31, 2014 9:42 AM CDT
Student: Prof Taught Wrong Course All Semester
   (Shutterstock)

A college professor was apparently teaching above her students' pay grade, and one former straight-A student is more than a little upset about it, KHOU reports. Lauren Firmin claims she struggled all semester in her introductory chemistry class at Texas' Lone Star College at University Park, and was left with an F grade as she neared the final exam. But then, one class suddenly made her semester-long struggle a lot clearer: Her teacher, Thao Shirley Nguyen, admitted to the class she'd been teaching the curriculum for a more advanced chemistry course the whole time, Firmin says.

"She told her mistake in class to all of the students," says Firmin. "She was teaching general chemistry, another course, all semester." To make up for students' poor performance, Nguyen said she'd boost the grades, turning Firmin's F into a B—but even that still ruined her 4.0 average, the student says. The executive director of college relations, however, says, "They were taught the right class," noting Nguyen "followed the syllabus and taught from the 1405 textbook." But an email Firmin received from the head of Lone Star's science department reads, "This was not intentional on Ms. Nguyen's part ... She was new to the introductory level." Nguyen's response? "No comment." (More teacher stories.)

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