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Is it common for grad school courses to be graded by TA's?
oldsak
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I started a program in the Fall and a lot of the grading is done by TA's. Maybe I've just had some bad ones, but if feels like kind of a ripoff. They barely know more about the material and their feedback tends to be not very helpful. Is this how most schools conduct business or am I justified in feeling ripped off?
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I TA'd for a semester. Not for a graduate course, but it WAS college. I did pretty much all of the grading for the class that term. I got a key (thought I didn't need it really) and told what kinds of mistakes to look out for especially, and what kinds not to worry too much about.
I don't really know if you're justified feeling ripped off... you may want to talk to your advisor and see what s/he says. A lot of factors go into whether or not a teacher or school uses TAs, and to what extent.
None of it is multiple choice.
I feel like their top priority is doing well in their own classes, which I get, but as a result I'm getting the minimum level of effort on their part.
If it's doctoral level, then no, this should never happen.
If it's master's level, why yes, I've seen, heard, and experienced it a lot.
Eh, the intro classes in my doctoral program were TA'ed by older students... who else is going to do it?
Obviously it depends a bit on what field you're in, and giving zero help is not ideal, but I don't think it's that crazy
They usually just do the grunt work. I wouldn't worry about it.
Let 'em eat fucking pineapples!
- TAs are sometimes assigned very strict guidelines to how they are supposed to spend their time. You say that you feel that you are only getting a "minimum effort," but sometimes TAs are required to do work for more than one class at a time and are told things like, "Each week you will spend no more than 6 hours on grading for class A, 12 hours on class B, and 2 hours on class C."
- You say that you feel that they "barely know more of the material." While this may be true, also consider that in many schools, they will try to find someone to TA who is qualified in that discipline. The criteria of qualified depends on the program, the need, and the school, but it may be someone doing research in that field, someone who has excelled in the class/in a similar class in the past, or someone with other prior experience in the field. Just because the TA may not be doing a good job of communicating that he/she is knowledgeable, I would not assume that they barely know more of the material.
You say that you're feeling ripped off. What are you feeling ripped off about?
Is it that you expected everything to be done by the professor? If so, you should keep in mind that professors tend to have a lot of time commitments that they're responsible for and that many schools find it a lot more economical to keep professors for the teaching and have TAs and graduate students doing the grunt work (such as grading).
Do you feel that the TA isn't giving you enough time or attention during office hours? If so, most schools require that professors hold office hours if they are teaching a course.
Do you feel that the TA has been grading you unfairly? If so, then that's something that you can definitely talk to the professor about, especially if the grading rubric hasn't been made clear.
Do you feel ripped off because you feel like you aren't getting your money's worth? If this is the case, is the quality of your education is suffering because of the TA? If it's a single TA, I would recommend speaking to the professor. If you feel this way about all TAs then I would wonder if you need to re-evaluate what your criteria for a good education is. Not all TAs are the same, they vary in quality in the same way that professors do. One bad experience with a TA doesn't mean all TAs are bad.
As others have said (and I'm sort of repeating), this is all very dependent on the school and the discipline.
Yes.
Is it frustrating that the people grading you are sometimes at or below your level?
Yes.
Do they sometimes do a really shitty and/or unfairly grade your work due to lack of effort/interest?
Yes
Welcome to grad school, take comfort in that the grades don't matter as much. But, also sympathize with the TAs, because things might be much harder on their end.
If contacting the professor isn't really an option, then I'd think maybe feeling a bit ripped off is justifiable. Till that point though, you've got options you can pursue
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Yes, you are justified in feeling ripped off.
I haven't had to deal with TA's before so it's frustrating to prepare for a mid-term without a lot to go on.
Still though, your prof should have office hours or something like that? Go talk with him for some real feedback.
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It is my experience that with and even without TAs, the emphasis is on the student to get in-depth feedback. There simply isn't enough time to give 20-100+ students informative and easily understood feedback on every assignment. This is made exponentially worse by the fact that if you are having problems it is non trivial to figure out what is going wrong from the work you turned in. It's easy to see where you made a mistake, but it's hard to know why. Thus what I usually see is that feedback written on the assignments is minimal, and if you are confused about how to do the problem correctly you should absolutely meet with the TA or professor to go over it in person.
I had a class where I was given an average of 15 minutes per 2,000 word case (typically 4-5 components that the student sees a mark for but if you include sub-components to be assessed in determining those marks its 15-20). If it's a class that is technical instead of written the time per assignment usually goes way way down.
Breaking down how to use that 15 minutes was up to me and a typical break down based off of having 40-50 assignments to mark:
Read the 15-20 page case that was assigned (1 minute)
Read/gain clarification from prof on the required including designing a new suggested solution and receiving feedback after turfing the almost always worthless and not really applicable one that the case author provides (1 minute)
Download and upload student assignment from the class electronic drop box and rename the file because almost no student can follow file naming guidelines (1-2 minutes depending on site lag)
Reread parts of the case due to unexpected or unusual student answers because I'm not a robot with total memory recall (30 seconds)
Read and mark the student case (9 minutes)
Provide individual student feedback (2 minutes)
Provide detailed overall class feedback file for students/provide Prof with areas of student weakness (30 seconds-1 minute)
With that breakdown I'm potentially over by 1.5 minutes potentially working for free for over an hour and that's assuming everything goes fairly well. If it doesn't I'm potentially working for free for several hours.
Providing really good written individual feedback on a assignment would take at the bare minimum 15 minutes if the student had a really good assignment. For a poor assignment it could potentially take hours as you would really have to redo most of their assignment for them. Marking is primarily for assessment purposes not for guidance. The onus is really on the students to get more detailed information and TAs/Profs have office hours for this (granted I was only given 1 hour a week so it may be difficult). Many will even try to answer your questions through email/discussion boards but it's much better to do this in person.
With all that being a said the average quality of a TA at least at undergrad level is fairly poor. A fair number of TAs are given work as part of their school funding so their is no expectation that they're good at it or have any real interest in it (some are fantastic though). Due to that and the very volatile nature of the job's stability TAing is rarely a career, it's a temporary job so the average level of experience is very low. The further you move up in your education the less this is an issue but you're probably still dealing with this for some of your TAs and the time issues really compound the perceived uselessness of any TA.
Most schools treat ms degrees as a moneymaker, even if the doctoral or undergrad program is pretty good. I recommend talking to the TA in person, since many will not put in a lot of effort into grading because they have oth responsibilities which are treated as more important. If that doesn't help just ask the questions straight to the professor (but don't complain about the TAs to the professor because chances are he or she will not take your side).
Most schools treat ms degrees as a moneymaker, even if the doctoral or undergrad program is pretty good. I recommend talking to the TA in person, since many will not put in a lot of effort into grading because they have oth responsibilities which are treated as more important. If that doesn't help just ask the questions straight to the professor (but don't complain about the TAs to the professor because chances are he or she will not take your side).
The TAs were always very competent in the subject matter. One of them even had to teach an undergrad class himself because staff was short one semester.
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Both? Being taught by grad students, at all but the highest levels, is pretty common at universities. If the TA is a PhD candidate, they're training to be a professor, so they need to learn how to lecture. Also their boss, the professor whose name is associated with the course, is using them to do most of the grunt work for the course so they can go about writing grants to fund more research. You paid $Texas to be there, and you're right to want a great education and the attention of those teaching you. Just remember that students are a small fraction of the responsibilities that those teaching you have, and keep in mind that everyone that works for the university is overworked and underpaid.
For the TA's, they're level of giving a fuck is typically directly related to how far along they are (ie how much of their life is wholly consumed by research and dissertation writing). In general, the most capable will be the most fried and least helpful, while the fresher faces still have something resembling the will to live, and are thus more helpful.
If the TA is really, really phoning it in, take it up with the professor. They aren't typically inundated with students, so they may be more helpful.
If you're having a problem with specific problems or concepts, visit the professor during office hours or bring it up during class.
To teach at an accredited institution you typically must have one level higher than what you are teaching with a minimum of 18 credit hours complete at the next level. This means, for an MA or MS program your TAs would need to be holding a Master's Degree with 18 credit hours (approximately halfway) through their doctoral programs. While unusual in my experience for TAs to be teaching at the Master's level, it is certainly not unheard of (especially for the intro courses).
Talk with your TA about your concerns and see what can be done, just like any other professor. If they are unhelpful or abusive the correct approach is to seek aid from your program adviser. If that doesn't help, then go to the Department Chair.