Posting this because I'm debating this on taking to my department because IMO this is incredibly unethical and wrong. I'll tell everything completely unbiased though so everyone can make their own opinion. (This is University btw).
I strongly recommend you read the detailed version, but people will complain this is long so:
tl;dr
So in my class, we made a massive group chat amongst all the students. We would use this as a resource for if we missed a homework assignment, needed help on a problem, missed class and wanted to know what happened, ask for handouts they might've missed, etc.
Fast forward to the end of the semester, the weekend before finals. I let my professor know i'm coming by his office to turn in some late homework, and he replies that he left a practice exam in his mailbox for me to try before our final. I grab the practice exam and begin working on it. I bring up this practice exam in the group chat mentioned above, and people who didn't get it ask if I can post a picture of it so I do.
A few minutes later, someone from the class messages me individually basically saying the practice exam was a secret. That the "practice exam" Is actually just the final, and that the professor only intended on giving it to students who stopped by his office. I was never told nor made aware of this until this moment.
I immediately do everything I can do get the pictures deleted, and do so within 20-30 minutes. Approximately 1-2 hours later my professor texts me saying he knows I posted pictures, and that I'm in trouble. I head to his office to try and explain and when I walk in he says "Why would you do that? Now I have to rewrite the exam." I tell him I didn't know it was a secret, no one told me and then I was told to get out.
2 days later my professor texts me again saying "I know it was an accident, all is forgiven. You can come by my office again to go over any questions you have on the final"
Next day take the final, do very well, finish the class with a B. Upon leaving the test room people ask me what test I got and i'm like what? And I find out that some students still got the exact same final as the practice exam. I'm like whatever, no big deal.
Fast forward to now, the next semester. I talk to a few of my peers who were doing about the same in the class prior to the final (as in we all had around an 82-85%). And turns out, they all finished with A's in the class. I talk to another peer who was doing a lot worse than me (Test average was a 72%, did not turn in much homework at all). This person also got an A in the class.
(This ends the unbias)
With this in mind, I get livid. So I deduce my professor gave an extremely generous curve, however my grade seemed unmoved. So I came to the conclusion either
1)My professor just didn't curve my grade at all completely out of spite.
2)My professor graded my final unrealistically strict, giving no partial credit and
3)My professor decided not to grade my late homework at all, even though multiple students turned in a lot of homework late.
So, was my professor wrong for this? Or did I deserve this?