I am considering to apply to become a TA for Kin 2Y03 or 2YY3, but I was wondering if it was worth it? The pay is $23 /hour and I do enjoy the subjects and did very well in them. Is it very time consuming in becoming a TA? Any opinions would be greatly appreciated

Originally Posted by daftypatty

I am considering to apply to become a TA for Kin 2Y03 or 2YY3, but I was wondering if it was worth it? The pay is $23 /hour and I do enjoy the subjects and did very well in them. Is it very time consuming in becoming a TA? Any opinions would be greatly appreciated

Really depends on the course. There are TA jobs where I did almost nothing, and other jobs where I was basically worked to death doing marking, tutorials. etc

Make sure you have the time and patience for it.

Originally Posted by daftypatty

I am considering to apply to become a TA for Kin 2Y03 or 2YY3, but I was wondering if it was worth it? The pay is $23 /hour and I do enjoy the subjects and did very well in them. Is it very time consuming in becoming a TA? Any opinions would be greatly appreciated

First of all, it depends on what you want to get out of it which could make it worth your time. How time consuming it is, depends on your supervisor and what tasks are allocated to you. You should get in touch with your TAs for the courses you mentioned to find out how many hours they signed on their hours of work form.

A full TAship is 130 hours.

I really enjoyed being a T.A. It is a very rewarding experience. It does require you to put in time reviewing the material and lecture notes (though for the most part you should have the notes from taking the class yourself) and you'll have to come up with lesson plans around those notes to help your tutorial students understand the material, answer questions, etc. Overall it isn't particularly difficult to do, but be sure to choose a course that you personally enjoyed and found interesting so that your passion for the course material comes through to your teaching.

There will be some times where you'll spend long nights marking essays, papers, tests, or assignments, but once you know the course outline and schedule you can mark those dates off in your calendar to prepare for them and work out your schedule to free up time around those busy periods.

The advantage of being a T.A. vs. any other job is the flexibility in the hours of when you work, you get to have office hours and tutorials in between your class schedule which is great. Also, the fact that you do help other students, some of which will look up to you for guidance and advice, thanking you for taking the time to help them succeed.