<p>what do we do in "Discussion" type class?
Is it good or bad or no matter if "Discussion" class is right after "Lecture"?
Do I suppose to have some time to read after "Lecture" in order to be in "Discussion"?</p>
<p>in discussions you usually just talk with your TA about anything you might be confused on, or any subjects that were confusing during lecture. For some classes (like language classes) it’s more important than others (like philosophy classes.)</p>
<p>Science class discussions are typically a TA explaining concepts, doing practice problems, or answering questions. It is often optional, but some classes have quizzes. Humanities classes typically discuss some of the material in small groups and it is often a part of your grade for participation and there might be quizzes in there as well.</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply!
What about the “discussion” for classics 20, comm 10 and chem 14A? I know classics 20 may use “discussion” to do quizz. Well… my biggest concern is: do I need time to do some problems or read some chapters or some paper after the “lecture” and before the “discussion”? I want to know which “discussion” schedule I should select, will I get enough time to prepare my “discussion”?</p>
<p>They won’t ever expect you to have something prepared for your discussion that was covered the same day in lecture unless you were warned in advance. For Chem 14A you will have 3 quizzes in discussions, but all the material will have been covered by the Friday of the week before at the very latest. In fact, I’ve heard (though I’m not entirely sure it’s true) that to compensate for the extra time people have to study by having discussion late in the week, the 14A professor makes the quizzes harder. So really, it doesn’t matter when you have your discussions. You may have more time to do things by having a discussion later in the week, but you’ll still have adequate time to do them with any discussion schedule.</p>
<p>wow, so many quizzes!
But, technically, I try to select a Discussion session time one hour after a lecture class. I am thinking it maybe take more than 10 minutes from one building to another building. Also, I try to make each lecture’s discussion on different dates in a week, so I won’t have a chance to prepare all the tests on the same day. I know classics 20 also have 3 quizzes. Is my thought good? </p>
<p>Do we know who leads Discussion? TA? which TA, do we know?</p>
<p>It depends on the person you are. I typically like to have as little gap as possible between classes, so I don’t sit around waiting. Most of my classes don’t have quizzes though. TAs are graduate students in that department. They usually aren’t listed on the registrar yet, but as it comes closer or when the quarter starts you can see their names or meet them on the first day of class.</p>
<p>
It doesn’t really take more than 10 minutes to get from building to building (unless you’re going from Broad to Health Sciences or something). When in doubt, consult a map.</p>
<p>As for spreading out discussions, that’s personal preference. I liked having lots of classes on the same day and back-to-back, so that I wouldn’t have long gaps where I either have to sit around on campus, or waste time going back to my dorm/apartment and coming back to campus.</p>
<p>
Off-topic, but are you really sure you want to take that? I made the mistake of taking that class as a GE a while back. Super time-consuming.</p>
<p>@grapesoda could you explain more about comm 10? do you mean it contains a lot of projects or reading? why did you say that? I did not get that class in my orientation because they said it is resvered for comm major till 9/1.</p>
<p>Sure. I’ll start with the positives:</p>
<ul>
<li>The lecturer is very entertaining and does a good job of conveying the material.</li>
<li>The class subject material is interesting (it formalizes how people communicate)</li>
</ul>
<p>Now the negatives:</p>
<ul>
<li>Two books that we need to know cover-to-cover (we discussed them in discussion, but not to the degree required for the exams)</li>
<li>Extremely dense lectures with lots of memorizing of names and examples of random concepts. These are two 2-hour lectures every week. The discussions do not touch on lecture material at all.</li>
<li>A writing assignment in the middle of the quarter that requires some outside research and lots of originality.</li>
<li>Exams are graded entirely by TAs. All TAs grade harshly in this class, but some grade especially harshly.</li>
<li>The curve is ridiculously harsh (especially for North Campus). When I took the class, ~10% of the class received an A, and another ~10% received an A-</li>
<li>Even worse is that people take this class to stand out when trying to get into the extremely popular communication studies major. Thus, people actually put effort into this class.</li>
</ul>
<p>I like how ~10% A and ~10% A- is ridiculously harsh in communication studies.</p>
<p>Actually, I think it’s more like ~5% A and ~15% A-. In any case, yes, I took a grand total of 4 North Campus classes in 4 years and this was the only one where 30+% of the class didn’t get some kind of A.</p>
<p>Discussion sections are technically optional, but in my mind, they are mandatory if you want to get very good grades. There are so many things that are confusing from the lectures that got cleared up in discussion by TAs.</p>
<p>10% A is ridiculously harsh for GE’s in general.</p>