Are Tutorials optional? Or are they mandatory. Like if i go to my lecture and miss tutorials or the other way around will I be missing anything?

Originally Posted by stja1

Are Tutorials optional? Or are they mandatory. Like if i go to my lecture and miss tutorials or the other way around will I be missing anything?

In tutorials, attendance is taken and in most courses attending tutorials is mandatory because it counts for your participation mark in a course. In tutorials, they discuss what has happened in the lecture and it is also a place where you hand in your assignments.

I see that ur in life sci, for bio 1M03 tutorial is mandatory since u do assignments and later PBL, for psych tutorials are semi mandatory since they take attendance and count for participation mark but u can skip one if u don't feel like going, for chem tutorials are for not mandatory since it's just TA going over tutorial problems. Personally I havent gone to any chem tutorial after the first one cuz I found them useless and waste of time but it's a personal choice

Originally Posted by stja1

Are Tutorials optional? Or are they mandatory. Like if i go to my lecture and miss tutorials or the other way around will I be missing anything?

You're going into Life Sci so I can speak for some of the courses.

CHEM 1A03/1AA3: Questions posted the week or so before are taken up. The tutorials are the first opportunity to see answers to these questions but they are not worth marks and completely optional.

MATH 1LS3: Take up questions (not for marks), completely optional.

BIO 1M03: Mandatory. Do graded assignments and a group project.

PSYCH 1X03/1XX3: These are the only class time you'll have and make up your participation mark in the course.

I can't think of any other classes but feel free to ask if I missed anything.

I had some friends in physics 1L03 and I think their tutorials had quizzes in them.

Math 1A03/1AA3 has pretty much the same situation as Math 1LS3 in terms tutorials. In the 1A stream, the TA would take up sample questions and explain solutions. 1A03 had assignments.

Whether or not tutorials are mandatory depends on the course you take.

As stated previously, in some courses, part of your final mark is based upon tutorial participation. You may be evaluated based on attendance, assignments/activities done during tutorial, or tutorial-based assignments/presentations. Tutorials ARE mandatory for these courses (unless you're okay with receiving an automatic zero for that portion of your grade).

In other courses, tutorials are for reviewing lecture material or for asking questions, where no marks are assigned based on your attendance. There may be ungraded optional assignments. In such courses, you can get away with missing tutorials.

In many cases, however, TAs may cover supplementary material NOT necessarily mentioned in class, or in much greater detail. You will be expected to know this extra material and it may (a.k.a most likely will) appear on tests.

Regardless of the course, a good rule of thumb is to attend your first scheduled tutorial and see what it's like - especially so if the course outline states that part of your evaluation will be based on tutorials.

It's also been a trend (and I found this personally to be true) that students who regularly attend tutorials end up with higher grades in the course. Ultimately, no one will force you to go to tutorials and it's up to you to keep up with course expectations.

As others mentioned, it really depends on the course. However, a lot of the times, the tutorial is important for attendance, group projects, participation, etc, especially in science. For first year though, all of them are pretty much mandatory in some way or another except for Chem 1AA3.

Is it possible that if your not feeling well one day to skip a tutorial but then go to one your not scheduled to be in the following day (If so, would that also work for lectures?)?

Originally Posted by Fatalis

Is it possible that if your not feeling well one day to skip a tutorial but then go to one your not scheduled to be in the following day (If so, would that also work for lectures?)?

Again this depends on the course. If you need attendance at a tutorial, you won't get credit for going to one you aren't scheduled for. Otherwise yes, it would be fine such as in chem (go whenever you want).

Lectures would definitely work, since attendance isn't taken.

Edit: Though I do remember my first class, physics 1b03, for some reason the class was REALLY popular and the seats were all filled up. The prof, Hughes, threatened to skip the lecture until the people that were not suppose to be there left.

Originally Posted by Fatalis

Is it possible that if your not feeling well one day to skip a tutorial but then go to one your not scheduled to be in the following day (If so, would that also work for lectures?)?

Some TAs have multiple sections and if you are marked for attendance they will let you sit in another one of their sections, but it depends on the TA as well as the course. I've only ever seen this done in humanities courses like english and philosophy.

If you ever miss a tutorial where you are marked for things, contact your TA and your prof immediately. Sometimes they will be able to accommodate you or give you a second chance. Once I missed my presentation because I slept through all my alarms, sadly my tutorial was the last one of the week (otherwise the prof was going to let me present in another tutorial) but the prof gave me the opportunity to do another presentation. Had to redo an entire presentation on an entirely different topic but it's WAY better than losing that 10 or 15%.