The Student Room Group

IB Maths Class/Teacher Problem. What should I do? Please help!

For some reason, when we got back to school this week, the standard maths classes had been mixed as both teachers teaching standard maths were new. When they found out one class was slightly ahead than the other, they decided to put us back in last year's class groupings. The problem is, my teacher then changed to another new teacher. Both teachers are new and I have only attended one class for each teacher, however, I find that the first new teacher (the one that is no longer my teacher) taught in a way that is easier for me to learn. Last year my maths teacher was pretty rubbish and I had to rely on self-studying and tuition. This made it very difficult for me to progress and so this year I really need a good teacher. It's not that the teacher I'm stuck with is bad, it's just that her teaching style is like last year's teacher and does not work for me at all. I'm willing to wait it out a few more classes but I am certain that I will need to move in order to be happy and successful in my studies. Considering that I have a maths test next week and I'm not so sure how well I will do, should I wait until after the maths test to ask to move, or ask before? I really want to move and even though the other class is slightly ahead of me, I don't think I'll have problems in catching up. The other issue is that the teacher that I want to switch from is the head of the department, so how do I go about asking to switch classes? The last thing I want to do is to offend her and then not be able to switch class and have a teacher that hates me for the next year. Besides, she seems really nice and really wants us to do well, and I'd feel terrible if I offended her. The problem is basically her teaching, not her, and I don't know how to I should go about resolving this. I could speak to m IB coordinator but he's very difficult and will probably just wave it off and tell me to stick it out for longer, and I'm afraid if I wait this out I'll reach a point in which it will be too late for me to change classes. HELP PLEASE!
Original post by izzie2803
For some reason, when we got back to school this week, the standard maths classes had been mixed as both teachers teaching standard maths were new. When they found out one class was slightly ahead than the other, they decided to put us back in last year's class groupings. The problem is, my teacher then changed to another new teacher. Both teachers are new and I have only attended one class for each teacher, however, I find that the first new teacher (the one that is no longer my teacher) taught in a way that is easier for me to learn. Last year my maths teacher was pretty rubbish and I had to rely on self-studying and tuition. This made it very difficult for me to progress and so this year I really need a good teacher. It's not that the teacher I'm stuck with is bad, it's just that her teaching style is like last year's teacher and does not work for me at all. I'm willing to wait it out a few more classes but I am certain that I will need to move in order to be happy and successful in my studies. Considering that I have a maths test next week and I'm not so sure how well I will do, should I wait until after the maths test to ask to move, or ask before? I really want to move and even though the other class is slightly ahead of me, I don't think I'll have problems in catching up. The other issue is that the teacher that I want to switch from is the head of the department, so how do I go about asking to switch classes? The last thing I want to do is to offend her and then not be able to switch class and have a teacher that hates me for the next year. Besides, she seems really nice and really wants us to do well, and I'd feel terrible if I offended her. The problem is basically her teaching, not her, and I don't know how to I should go about resolving this. I could speak to m IB coordinator but he's very difficult and will probably just wave it off and tell me to stick it out for longer, and I'm afraid if I wait this out I'll reach a point in which it will be too late for me to change classes. HELP PLEASE!


I've moved this into the IB forum for you :biggrin:

I would explain how you're feeling to your new maths teacher - It's likely they'll be grateful for the feedback, they'll want you to succeed :smile:

If things don't get better talk to IB Coordinator or form tutor - at least then you have tried.
You are totally in the same situation as me. I was stuck with a really bad teacher (don't get me wrong he is an awesome bloke, really really nice - but he just sucks at teaching) but at the end I self studied and had some tuition right before my exams and got a 6 in math HL.

I remember everyone in my class filled out this complaint letter and sent it to the head of math department in hopes of having a change of teacher (we wanted the head of math department to teach us as he was a great teacher and he was really passionate about maths). But ultimately this plan failed.

I would suggest if your plan fails, self study and rely on tuition. Remember you only have 2 years and you're doing Math SL right? so self-studying an SL subject wouldn't be as hard as self studying a HL subject (I self studied both Chemistry and Math HL as both of my teacher would just teach us the basics and tell us to go and read the textbook to learn about the harder stuff -> which is basically telling us to go self study).

This requires motivation and hardwork and I am an proponent of the idea of students driving their own education. Given that you've already tried self studying and outside tuition before, I believe you have the ability to do that again. I know this sucks and you may probably be thinking: "But isn't a teacher hired to teach us things and employed for their ability to teach?" Yes true and I used to think that as well - what's the point of having a teacher when the teacher just sits around and teaches nothing and reads from the textbook and tells us to do those exercises when we can do that in our own time? From this experience I've also realized that these types of teachers also push you to work on your own (a skill that you need to succeed in college) because if they won't teach you, and you want to get 6-7, then who is going to help you besides you? So I think it's all about accepting the fact that "Ohkay sh*t I'm stuck with this really nice teacher who is bad at teaching for 2 whole years of IB, so what can I do, what can I do to change my grade and get a grade that I deserve?" -> you are the only one who can change that.

So ultimately I think it's all about self-belief. I still remember panicking a month right before my real IB exams on May (and note I did HL Maths) and I knew nothing about further calculus, further statistics, all those poisson and normal and binomial distribution, and let alone even understanding my further calculus option (in HL maths we had to choose an option) when I didn't even understand the concept of further calculus in the core section. So I studied intensely for a week on doing purely maths (I procrastinated my revision till 1 month right before the exam so I had to spread my subjects accordingly for revision) and tried to understand things and hardwork does pay off sometimes! (I also had tuition in between as well - tuition definitely helps!) Think about the 6 or 7 you get and the pride that comes with it when you know that you got that grade all on your own!

I'm sorry that you're in this situation - I've been there and I know how it sucks to have teachers like that, especially teachers who are sooo nice but they just suck at teaching and you don't want to hurt their feelings. But think about it as an experience and challenge to demonstrate to yourself that you can do it yourself with your own ability.

I'm sorry if this isn't much help, but as you have said you think that you will have no problems in catching up so I would suggest spending extra time from your leisure to just do some maths (it helps) cause math is all about practicing and understanding.

In the meantime, do talk to the head of math department about your situation but before that, ask people (your classmates) whether they feel the same way and maybe find other people who does feel the same way as you do to speak together with you to the head of math departments (the more people there are the more convincing it is - my class only comprised of like 5 people so it wasnt as convincing). And if things don't go as planned then....all I can say is self study and tuition!

Good luck with everything though!
(edited 9 years ago)
Reply 3
Original post by She-Ra
I've moved this into the IB forum for you :biggrin:

I would explain how you're feeling to your new maths teacher - It's likely they'll be grateful for the feedback, they'll want you to succeed :smile:

If things don't get better talk to IB Coordinator or form tutor - at least then you have tried.


Thank you for your help. Many other students have complained so I can't move or almost the whole class will demand to be moved. However, I have a new IB coordinator and I think this one will speak to the teacher and improve the teaching methods employed in that class. So I've decided just to do more self-studying. Hopefully it all works out well in the end :smile:
(edited 9 years ago)
Reply 4
Wow that was a long message haha. Many other students have complained so I can't move or almost the whole class will demand to be moved. However, I have a new IB coordinator and I think this one will speak to the teacher and improve the teaching methods employed in that class. So I've decided just to do more self-studying. Hopefully it all works out well in the end Thank you so much for your time and advice!

Quick Reply

Latest