<p>^ I also heard that the physics hands-on lab final could be quite tormenting as the allocated time for each test taker is short.</p>
<p>BTW, did she happen to have a “bad” TA? It is rumored that the quality of the TAs could make a world of difference in the experience (esp. the physics lab). I heard that the things you learned in the lab have not much to do with the lecture of the same course. Sometimes, when the handout is not very well-written, a good TA could help interpret what they want from the students. A “bad” TA may just guess it together with the students as he himself may not be sure of it – kind of “the blind leads the blind” scene.</p>
<p>I could understand that some TA might not take the exact same lab when they were undergraduates (as very very few graduate students from that department were from the same college.) But some TAs may be on the borderline of being irresponsible - they themselves may not show any interests in learning the practical aspect in the physics labs.</p>
<p>Well…my words here may be too harsh on TAs here, as most TAs are very qualified/responsible. A good example is one of my child’s TAs, who is currently an MD/PhD student and have taken the same class before. The students learned a lot of basic stuff from her. This is a good preparation for picking up the more advanced stuff from the lecturers (6 lecturers?) who team-taught the class. The lecturers tend to be more interested in teaching the cutting-age topics related to their very specialized research areas than the basic stuff. Because my child’s TA is so good, the average of the midterm test for their section beats all other sections, including the sections consisting of graduate students only. This is a difference that a great TA can make! (Coincident or not, when a TA is from the professional school, he or she tends to be better. This happened to my child three times in the past.)</p>