<p>I had my first chemistry lab yesterday. What a mess. I wasn't on "the list", but ISIS had me there. Once I convinced the lady, Jan Dean, of this-she put me in one class with what seemed to be a great TA, then 20 minutes later, she yanked me out and put me in another class.
So I go in, and now the new TA thinks I'm just carelessly late. I tried desperately to catch up and ask questions, but she wasn't very nice, I'm sure because she thought I was just late. Also, she's Asian--not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just that she is very hampered with the English language. Man, it was a lousy day yesterday. I think I'm sick and then this Chem lab stuff. Oh well, gotta bounce back.
Any advice on how to keep up in the Chem lab if one has a not so good TA? I thought about just seeing how I do on my own, and I guess there are tutors out there. I don't really feel like I need one. I'm just trying to be a little proactive so as to know where to go to ask if I ever do need help.
I got an e-mail from that chemistry sort-of-fraternity offering to tutor people. Would they be a good source?</p>
<p>If you do well in the lecture, you will most likely do well in lab, as the lab is designed to give a more indepth, "hands on" look at the lecture material. So, keep up on lecture stuff, and you should do ok. If you're having trouble in lecture, then yes, you should maybe look into a tutor, and the chem-frat is a great resource beyond prof. office hours.</p>
<p>On a happy/chin-up note: labs are just a mess, period, with any class. I struggled through my chem lab, my physics I lab, and now through my physics II lab. They try to cram so much into them and sometimes you just get completely lost, confused, and overwhelmed. And the crummy TAs only make it worse. So just try to get the work done in the lab to get the A, and just focus on the lab's concepts in your lecture material (I assume there will be a midterm or final or both in the lab)</p>
<p>Thanks Shoebox, I was really down yesterday. You are right, the lab was just a mess.
I'm not lost at all in the lecture, and not really in the lab either. I was just disappointed by the impersonal, mass element of the chem lab, and I was not impressed by the TA.
I needed a pep talk, and I thank you for responding!</p>
<p>Hahahah welcome to college science labs! They kinda suck, don't they? =P Labs are a jumbled mess, and I have one today at 2, and apparently it's horrendous. Even my CS201 lab sucks. It's hard to put together labs because people work at different paces, TAs can't keep up, and the work is just frustrating. And don't even get me started on the TAs: I was in a physics lab with a decent TA, then the coordinator came in and got a few of us to move to the other room to balance the two rooms out, and the new TA just sucks.<br>
"This experiment won't work for us"
"Oh, well, maybe because humidity in air is too big"
"Ok, well, what is supposed to happen with this?"
"Oh, it won't work because humidity and air"
"Yes, we know, but we just want to know what should happen if this experiment were to work"
"It won't work today" <em>Walks away</em></p>
<p>.......</p>
<p>Oh, that sounds so horrible! But you did make me laugh out loud!</p>
<p>is your TA Sara something?</p>
<p>No. Zing Pad Thai or something. Although I just got out of the lab and this week's lab suuuccckkkkeeeddddd. Barely finished. And Pad Thai gets bonus points because he helped a ton today.</p>
<p>Labs: A Hit or Miss Mess</p>
<p>Hey, my ta's name is Sara :) She was really quiet, which made it much harder to understand what she was saying. At least she's nice, even though lab was horrendous and disappointing.</p>
<p>mmmmmm pad thai....</p>
<p>now i want thai food...</p>
<p>[/helpful post]</p>