<p>I'm a student who recently declared CS major and is taking CS 2110 right now. Recently, there was a TA interest form sent through email from the CS department. I'm thinking of applying to become a TA for CS 1110. However, while I thought that CS 1110 was an easy course when I took it, I'm not confident of how I will fare as a TA. Specifically, although I'm sure I'll do fine when it comes to grading, I'm not confident with holding office hours (since I'm bad at explaining things to others). </p>
<p>I'm also wondering what the responsibilities of TAs are. Are they required to hold a certain number of office hours a week?</p>
<p>You want to try to track down a frequent poster on this board, hazelorb, who used to be a TA in Comp Sci. She’s a great source of information and I’m sure would be happy to help you. If you scroll through the last few posts you may see where she’s posted and you can send her a PM. Hopefully she’ll see this, but it’s Reading Days so maybe not.</p>
<p>Your main job as an undergrad TA will be office hours and explaining things. Only grad students with abysmal english proficiency end up grading as the majority of their duty.</p>
<p>I’ve held as few as 4 and as many as 10 office hours/labs/grading per week. It depends on the department budget.</p>
<p>I’m aware that hazelorb is a frequent poster here and has been a TA for CS courses. I wanted to PM her at first, but then I thought that if it’s here on the forum, others with the same question can search for it.</p>
<p>Anyway, TAs seem to have to hold a lot of office hours. Since I’ll have a busy schedule next semester, I have decided not to fill out the interest form.</p>
<p>Can anyone help me determine what is the best way to advise my uva seas student on how to get help with CS2110. My student has never taken CS before last semester—took CS 1112 last semester and eked By but did not really grasp fundamentals. Struggling in first week this semester. Private tutor has worked for other subjects. But needs someone who can explain concepts well.</p>
<p>CS1112 is NOT the class to take if your student has to move on to CS2110 (sorry your student went this route already). I believe I have advised about that before – it is a great 101 class, but WILL NOT prepare you for 2110.</p>
<p>With that said, the 111x TAs are allowed to tutor 2110. If your student liked their 1112 TA (there would have been quite a few) they can email and ask about private tutoring. The minimum these students will be charging is $25/hr. There is also a list run through the ACM team I believe – [Contact</a> Us | ACM@UVa](<a href=“ACM@UVa | Home”>ACM@UVa | Home)</p>
<p>Thank you for the reply. Why does SEAS advise students to do that then if they are starting with NO CS experience? My D really felt like she had no other choice last semester since she had never taken CS before.</p>
<p>For students who only need 1 semester it is the perfect class. However for systems engineers and others who need 2 semesters, it does a great disservice. There is a lot of dissension in the department about the differences in 1110 and 1112 and how it should be handled but there hasn’t been a consensus yet. By CS 2116 most of the differences have disappeared (ie. you can’t tell if majors took 1110 or 1112) however cs 2110 is a rough transition. CS 1112 also is geared towards typical minorities in CS which include women, so it’s a more enjoyable class than CS 1110 in that sense however the trade off is the rough 2110 transition. You don’t win either way basically.</p>
<p>Whiskyrs99 - I just graduated in May with a BS in CS. I couldn’t fit CS into my schedule first year, declared a major in another engineering discipline, and took 1112 because I had no prior experience. I ended up falling in love with the field as a result of the course and the amazing instructor I had - halfway through, I took a leap of faith and switched my major to Computer Science. I did not find 2110 abnormally difficult, even having taken 1112 instead of a “harder” introductory class.</p>