Just wondering (specifically for chem 1a03/1aa3 & english course), do you just bring in your questions from the textbook and class to ask the TA? Do the TAs assign you work and do practice problems?

Is there a difference between a tutorial section that is inbetween your cores compared to on thats on friday after you've taken classes? Which one is better?

As well, for the tutorials & labs which are EOW, for mine both are the same number, how do I know which one happens in the first week? Both of my L&T are even numbers.

Thank you!

When I took Chem 1A03/1AA3, tutorials were optional and you would go and do practice problems with a TA. An English tutorial will likely have you discussing your readings.

There is no difference as to when your tutorial is during the week with relation to your other classes.

Labs/Tutorials won't start during the first week or two, so you'll be told in class when your specific tutorial/lab will begin.

Yeah what happens in a tutorial depends on the class. Usually though you may be reviewing some material covered in lecture and expanding upon it or the TA might help people to explain parts they weren't clear on. There's room for questions and discussions too. Again though it depends on the subject, for history it can new readings related to the week's broader topic/time period and you may discuss it. For Multimedia our TA teaches us the new programs and skills we need to complete our projects for the class (ie they'll teach us Photoshop or Final Cut or whatever).

For English I would imagine you'll be discussing whatever novel or material you're reading at the moment.

For Chem I would guess your TA will go over concepts and material from lecture and help with any questions etc.

Tutorials are great for getting participation marks if your Prof decides to make it worth a certain percentage.

It depends on the class, but tutorial usually means more group based discussion, going over problems or questions, and getting participation marks. Some of my tutorials had presentations, some had small projects (well, you usually hand in all your assignments and projects in tutorial, and you have small tests in there as well). It's usually like 20-30 people, but sometimes there's a lot less, sometimes there's more but that's rare.

English tutorials are a mixture of discussion and making sure you understand definitions and concepts. If you are writing your first essay in the class there will be discussion on how, where and why to cite, what MLA citation style is etc.

An outline of an English tutorial:
- TA passes around attendance sheet
- TA asks group to explain x concept(s), y term(s)
- TA asks opinion on reading, gets you relate to x concept(s), y term(s)
- discuss things as a group

There may also be presentations that you will need to complete (in small groups or alone) as part of your grade.

Tutorials are mandatory in that they count for a participation part of your grade. If you don't go, you loose an easy 10-20%. Granted, attendance rarely counts for more than 50% of that grade, you do need to participate to get full marks.

For Chem 1A03/1AA3 (last year), the tutorials were optional. There were practice tutorial questions assigned online, and you would go to the tutorial to go through them. Also, the TA's were available to answer any questions you had on the work - this is especially useful before exams.

I only ever went to 2 or 3 of them, because they would post the full tutorial answers at the end of the week online and i found them a waste of time =/ - but others really found it useful

Cross your fingers for an awesome TA.

Originally Posted by Bobby66

Cross your fingers for an awesome TA.

No kidding! Last year, I had a TA for Poli Sci. I had her all year, but she didn't know any of our names, so I really don't know how she gave us participation marks. :S She acted like she didn't care and cancelled tutorial all the time, and while it may sound great, it didn't help me in terms of the class.

Originally Posted by feonateresa

No kidding! Last year, I had a TA for Poli Sci. I had her all year, but she didn't know any of our names, so I really don't know how she gave us participation marks. :S She acted like she didn't care and cancelled tutorial all the time, and while it may sound great, it didn't help me in terms of the class.

Did you ever email your prof about her? I would do so now (that your marks are finalized and nothing can happen to your grades), in an effort to make sure other students don't have her again and/or if she is teaching she is being watched.

thats nothing compared to one of the labour studies 1co3 ta's... the prof ended up having to remark all of the midterms from her sections because she failed too many people, and she used yell at people during tutorials and call them stupid

My Math 1A03 TA accused me of cheating :(