I totally hate school

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I just do. I just don't understand why am I such an unfortunate loser. I do IB Diploma at School, I score an average of a Level 6 in my Maths HL exam (If you didn't know the scoring, it goes from 1-7. 7 is your A+, while 1 is your F.), then my teacher predicts me a 4. I admit I struggled at the start which tanked, but then It got better, but all this? I feel I have totally messed up my school life. Gosh. Now my dreams for a good college are now shattered.

Wait so you are saying that your average is a level 6 and your teacher graded you with a 4 at the end of the year? :O

Exactly. I get a 6 Average for my Physics and Chemistry HL Exams that pushes my overall averages in those subjects to a strong 5, then teachers predict me a 4. What pathetic bull****.

It turns out some of the questions I answered in the exams had matched the mark scheme entirely, but I didn't cheat in them, I practiced and actually made the effort to work myself, and now they assume that I've cheated, or now think that I saw the questions beforehand before proceeding. I've tried to convince them, and my mother tried to convince them that I made the effort, and she knew that I practiced past papers repeatedly, but to no avail has that convinced my teachers in any way at all.

I think that these predicted grades are just a complete effort to demotivate a student in my opinion. It's funny how our school told us that "Oh, whatever grade you get will be 70% of the predicted grade", when it turns out they lied to all of us.

So, the teachers pegged you at a certain level and then accused you of cheating because you did better than their prediction? If so, that is royally unfair and really unprofessional on their part.

Now, even given this, you need to stay very strategic, similar to a politician staying on message in the face of distractions. Maybe something like: I put the time in, I studied past tests, and I did well. Keep it simple and straightforward. At the same time, maybe cut them a little bit of slack in that it looks suspicious since, as you say, some of your answers matched the mark scheme entirely. Doesn't mean you're not going to fight it. Rather it's more like an extra reminder to be polite and firm when you do fight it.

Is there a teacher, maybe even from a previous year, or a coach or a principal who could be your advocate? Who would be willing to say, let's look into this and make sure we are treating the student fairly. Your mother would ask this potential advocate if he or she might be willing to do this. And accept if the person says no because you are asking them to take on the system. The only other thing I can think of is to have a lawyer write a letter to the school. Other people here might be able to think of more intermediary actions.

I think you should talk to your parents; but honestly I don't fully understand this thread.

THis thread talks about how I scored so highly in my exams, with the teachers telling us that whatever grade you got in that, you'd get predicted what you got, but it turns out they lied to us, and how I've been predicted unfairly. It's fair to say that I did talk to my parents about this, but the teachers ignored.

I wouldn't worry about it too much; I've been through the same thing. I got a school grade of B in AP Chemistry last year (which predicts about a 4 on the exam), and got a 5 (highest score) on that AP exam. If that class is the only one you have a major grade/test difference in, colleges will believe that something is wrong on the teacher's part, and let you off the hook. But do talk to your parents about this, and try to have your parents speak to the school about it, too. It's worth a try.

Good luck, and let me know how it goes!

Trust me, taking IB classes sets you apart from a lot of college applicants in a good way.

Agreed completely. Plus, I wouldn't be too bothered about what happened earlier with me when I started IB by bad grades in topic tests. But may I ask, these 6's I got on my Grade 11 mock exams, will they still show how far I've progressed? Note that in my reports, I had been getting 4's all year based upon the subjects I took at Higher Level (Maths, Physics, Chemistry), but I'm hoping that this will be something colleges will consider.

Because I got too depressed with my predicted grades, I got my Mother to talk with the board, and by bashing back and forth in a rather tiring manner, the board agreed that they will now take the overall grade of the trial exams in January 2013 (Around the year of graduation) as my predicted grades (and they said so in a rather frightened way), and they will send them in shortly to my university choices. Problem is that I might have to attend to university a year earlier.

Please continue to dream big. Consider premium professions like working as a doctor, business professional, engineer, lawyer, architect, etc, etc, etc.

Don't let them run this game on you that you've "blown it" or it's "too late," for it isn't.

And I think it's fine to go to college early, and it's fine to go late (I started at age 19), and fine to go exactly "on-time" (quote-unquote).

I remember taking a psychology class where it was the classic three tests and one paper. In the instructions for the book report, the professor wrote, "These rules need not be followed exactly as long as the result makes sense." I wrote a book report that was maybe a little bit creative, and the teaching assistant gave me a 55 and wrote, "You have some good ideas but you need to follow the rules." I told the teaching assistant, "This is not acceptable." The professor thought I was being too hard and jumped in and defended the teaching assistant, with the perhaps inevitable result of also justifying the decision. I wrote a letter to the dean. He wrote back and said he couldn't get involved between me and my professor. That is, he begged off.

I think there's a tendency to view grades as arguing balls and strikes (even when such is emphatically not the case).

I let it go at this point, which . . I feel a little bad about. There's a case for fighting the good fight even if I'm probably going to loss. I guess it helps the next person, sometimes. But I didn't know if I could fight it without losing my cool, and frankly, I didn't have one person who was on my side or who could be my advocate.

This runs deep. Institutions have a very hard time ackowledging they may have made a mistake. Look at all the cases in which the police, in response to a really horrendous crime, fixate on the first suspect, at times surprisingly early in the investigation. And this happens both in my own country the United States and also internationally. Look at how the Italian police fixated on Amanda Knox. I guess part of the solution is for the police to really endeavor to keep a short list longer.