<p>Hi again,</p>
<p>What is discussion/section?
Is it best taking these DIs shortly after lecture or after finishing all your lectures for the week?</p>
<p>I think it is when you talk with a TA and ask questions/get help.</p>
<p>They’re smaller than the lectures (~30 enrolled students, but fewer show up) and it’s the TA’s chance to summarize course material, go over any hard topics, give practice exam problems, and you can ask questions to your heart’s content. It’s a good chance to shop around for better TAs too – some could care less, others will go out of their way to ensure that you learn the material. There have been several instances where I learned more from the TA than I did from the professor.</p>
<p>Thanks astrina!!
So, what works for you? DIs right after lectures or at the end of all lectures of the week. (Being an incoming freshmen, I don’t know much TAs and have no idea which discussions might be better)
I am taking POLI 12, MATH 20B, CHEM 6B (OMG… JUDY KIM! ima gonna die?), MCWP 40 and some seminars. Well, I’d be glad if you know of TA’s or good discussion times for these classes.
thanks once agen :D</p>
<p>Discussion times don’t really matter; all the material is staggered and covered by all the TA’s anyway. Like astrina said, if you have extra time, just audit each TA and see which is the most helpful</p>
<p>like we can go to random discussion times to see which TA is better ?</p>
<p>yeah, you can go to whichever discussion you want. just make sure you go back to your scheduled TA when you have to pick up quizzes and tests.</p>
<p>^But be careful when doing this… for MMW for example, they take attendance in section and you can only attend YOUR discussion.</p>
<p>hahaha … judy kim for chem 6b? best of luck to you. it’s going to be … memorable.</p>
<p>she’s a very nice lady and a very good and eager teacher, but she ranks as one of the toughest professors i had during my time at ucsd.</p>
<p>@astrina</p>
<p>After reading the reviews/evaluations on Judy Kim… I have decided to take Chem 6AH instead of Chem 6B. 
But is she really that bad? What is it that makes her such a… horribly recommended professor?</p>
<p>don’t waste your time with 6AH, just take a GE in its place and take 6B with the rest of your suitemates come winter quarter. (lots of discussion on 6AH vs 6B in archives, go explore)</p>
<p>there’s nothing wrong with judy kim. she’s tough, as professors ought to be. students like like being spoon-fed and getting As without too much hair-pulling, that’s all. but that viewpoint will change as you progress through your studies, and eventually you’ll actually welcome a challenge and feel like you needed to work (as opposed to memorize) your way to the A.</p>
<p>WELL…how come ther are no spaces for phys 2A? is there any use in waitlisting as the 14th person?
hmph. (I was gonna take phys in place of chem)</p>
<p>Can’t hurt to waitlist can it? Go in their early on the first day and start telling people how you heard the teacher was super hard, sucks, and everyone will get low grades…scare people into leaving. lol</p>
<p>^ HAHA</p>
<p>and whos the prof? if its phys 2a and youre only waitlist 14 youre almost !00% to get in id say, people always drop </p>
<p>HAHA its Sharma, people WILL drop, I took him, I liked him, but his final was redic, my friend struggled with Sharma and dropped his class 8th week. He took it the following quarter with another professor and got an A+</p>
<p>Bluepink, how many hours do you believe one should spend to do well in Sharma’s Phys 2a? If you don’t mind me asking, how did you do in his class?</p>
<p>Thanks a bunch</p>
<p>Hmm thats a tough question, I didnt do too well or too bad, i got a B, which kinda makes me mad esp because i did better in 2B E&M than sharmas class and 2B is harder. And when he tells you that the final isnt going to be harder than anything on the quizzes, its a lie, the final is redic hard, I swear I laughed out loud at some of the questions.</p>
<p>ways to do well
- do ALL the assigned homework, and do it before the Problem Solving Sessions
- go to ALL of the Problem Solving Sessions with your finished HW
- go to class (obvs) even though he posts his slides online
- put everything you think you need on your “cheat sheet” – you get a notecard for the weekly quizzes
- for the final, go over all the quizzes, AND the tougher hw questions, and go to the review sesh.
- if youre still lost, go to Office Hours or Study Tables (free tutoring for physics, your prof should mention it, if not you can google it for time/location)</p>
<p>Sharma is a funny guy, and a likeable guy, his tests/quizzes are just hard, and his final I took it to heart when he said it wouldnt be harder than the quizzes, but I guess hes notorious for having a hard final. The curve should be pretty big, so its not something I would worry about too much, if someone had just told me to get this stuff done I think I would have done way better in the class. Dont assume you dont have to put in time for studying just because there are only 8 question quizzes which make up 60% of your grade, I got lazy and I think thats what hurt me. Id put at least two hours of studying in for your classes to every hour of lecture you have, thats a general guideline for every class</p>
<p>oh and get sleep before the final, we had an 8am final, and im bad at waking up early so I just stayed up all night (i do this often, even for 8am classes) , but I wish I had gotten a little bit of sleep at night instead of the nap i took during the day the day before</p>
<p>I have had several different types of discussions/sections. They were used for the following:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>TA sections: going over anything related to the class. Also useful for homework help and going over difficult concepts presented in lectures.</p></li>
<li><p>sections that collect homeworks. Homeworks are turned in to the sections and the TAs go over the homework solutions during the section.</p></li>
<li><p>Section becomes extended lecture day. Some professors use the section to go over additional material not covered in lecture. I had one professor who used the section cuz he felt the MWF was not enough time to cover the material so he made the section a 4th hour lecture time slot.</p></li>
<li><p>Section used as an additional office hour for the professor. Some professors have so many students visit office hours that they use the section as an extra office hour.</p></li>
<li><p>Section used as exam review. Occassionally a section used to cover material for the upcoming exam.</p></li>
<li><p>Section used as discussion. These are usually mandatory with attendance being part of the grade. These are used to discuss whats being read in the textbooks/readers with TA trying to initiate a discussion over the reading material that was due for that week</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Make sure you e-mail your professor prior to week 1 of the Fall quarter to see if there will be a section/discussion for week 1. Most professors dont usually have them until week 2 but some usually have a review section in week 1 to review stuff they expect you to know for the class</p>
<p>BlueSky has good advise. I didn’t take physics at UCSD, but my advise is similar, if not more basic. Just make sure you really know any of the problems you do before the exams. It’s not worth doing hw problems if you’re not going to master it. I struggled in physics until I finally took that lesson to heart.</p>
<p>Thanks so much guys!</p>