<p>My grades are deteriorating this quarter all because TAs are grading my essays: </p>
<p>Class #1: 1st Midterm (5-pages): B- </p>
<p>"You have several interesting ideas here. It's clear that you understand the tenets on the author's argument. However, you can assume your reader has read the material. Your job is not to rehash the text but analyze it and reveal how it works. List the three main ideas. You would do well if you provide an introduction with a forecast of ideas that indicates the directions of the paper. And please use the MLA style of documentation." </p>
<p>Class #2: Midterm (impromptu in-class essay): B-/C+ </p>
<p>"This essay successfully summarizes the positions of the four authors and (in the final sentence) present your own judgment. However, it does not integrate your judgment with the authors' ideas. This was a key part of the assignment. In addition, your review of the authors' ideas was not always as clear or specific as we would like. You clearly make an argument that all four authors would see the mental health system as having failed Sylvia. But, how would they differ in describing Sylvia's relationship to the institutions? This was not always clear in this essay. Please come by to talk if you have any questions!" </p>
<p>(Keep in mind we only had 70 minutes to write this essay yet argue 4 authors, Sylvia, my opinion AND define the freaken terms. But I ran out of time and never got to explaining my own opinion let alone a well-thought conclusion.) </p>
<p>One TA says that I didn't need to explain the material in the essay. Another TA says I should have explained the material in the other essay. It's official: I don't know what to do anymore. </p>
<p>I just want to hide in a corner and scream.</p>
<p>Wow.. I'd be ****ed. Are TA's generally frowned upon? I can see how they would be, especially when it comes to grading - and especially when it comes to grading something subjective as essays.</p>
<p>that doesnt sound like the TAs fault at all. That's the kind of **** i've seen on my papers since 10th grade.</p>
<p>Talk with the TAs after class or during office hours, or even with the professor and ask as sincerely as possible how you could improve your writing. Ask them what they look for and what the perfect paper would be like and then just imitate it. At least show effort so that the next time around the TA might cut you some slack.</p>
<p>That's the one thing I noticed in college, these TA graders can be heartless or at least pretty rigid in grading -- especially in math classes.</p>
<p>In high school if you missed a minus sign but followed the correct procedure of integrating, you got partial credit for knowing what to do.</p>
<p>In my calculus class, if you miss a minus sign and still demonstrate that you know how to do it correctly, you get no points like the joe schmoe who didn't know what he was freaken doing.</p>
<p>[/rant]</p>
<p>my mother had the best TA in her jewelry class. She was the kind of TA who throuought the semester never once figured out which direction the knob had to be turned to turn off the gas tanks etc.</p>
<p>My mom ended up turning her final project into a melted smouldering mess and had to turn it in so she just dropped it into a nice jewelry box and handed it in. A while later she got a call from the TA who was like "well it looks like there is something wrong with your project or something so I had to give you a B. You can come and talk to me or fix it if you'd like"</p>
<p>Needless to say she was elated that not only had she not been failed (generally its school policy that not having a final results in an incomplete for the class) but had been given a B so she never talked to the TA again and went on her merry way.</p>
<p>Otto, I would have been happy with a B. But I got B-s which are essentially Cs!!!</p>
<p>well see...TAs feel like they have to "grade like a professor," which in turn means they try to hard and generally end up looking more in to the details and grading harsher than your average professor would.</p>