<h1>14 -
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<pre><code> Capable and hardworking students rarely need TA.
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<h1>19 -
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<pre><code> I’d rather say “unmatched for colleges”.
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<p>Quote: “There is no difficult classes in American HS, none, zero.”</p>
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<p>There may have been no difficult classes in the HS that you are familiar with, but such a blanket generalizaiton is inaccurate and unwarranted.</p>
<p>At S’ college, it is very common for the TA to teach the class and the actual professor to rarely be seen. Some of his classes have no textbooks…yet tests are over material not in notes or discussion. at least if there had been a book, you can read the chapters and self study.</p>
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Well there can be other reasons, but maybe not in your major.</p>
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<p>TA is from the country that is the mortal enemy of your own country :)</p>
<p>I once had a TA from Pakistan that managed to wreck havoc on all the students from India (to the tune that the school got involved) in a grad class… Some of the Indian students were friends and they were quite upset. </p>
<p>Another reason - Gender clueless-ness by the Prof’s. This happened to Mrs. Turbo and some of her female fellow grad students… Visiting Prof came from a strong male dominated country and made it quite explicit that he did not believe women could understand the intricacies of theoretical Statistics. He changed his mind after a flood of formal complaints to the school…</p>
<p>Professor teaching at a completely different level than expected… I was taking Discrete Math in section A and a friend in section B with a brand name guy (a genius in the field, except that he looked like Sam the Pirate, chewed tobacco in class and carried a spittoon along - no joke). I copied one of the homework answers from my friend (a problem that not a single student in section B had been able to solve and Prof. Sam solved it on the board) and got it back the next day with a comment from my Prof: “I can’t understand the solution, but it looks correct” :)</p>
<p>"There may have been no difficult classes in the HS that you are familiar with, but such a blanket generalizaiton is inaccurate and unwarranted. "
-I was talking about HSs in the USA. The program has to be certified, so basically it is the same. Are there schools that start physics and chem in 6th grade and continue all the way thru HS? English is taught this way, physics is not. And this is a mistake, just to point to one mistake. There are many like that. The result is that kids are buried in paper work, filling the blanks, this does not prepare for college at all. then as a burst of spark, here, learn physics in one year or study many math disciplines as one pre-calc or pre-other math class. It creates mush where it supposed to be analytical thinking and to call a kid “an idiot” after that is just to admit complete failure on part of k-12.</p>
<p>I, too, am speaking of high schools in the USA and this is simply not true as a blanket statement. Again, that it speaks to your experience I am not her to dispute. However, one simply cannot say that about the universe of HSs and districts in the US.</p>
<p>Saying that students don’t work hard enough is an oversimplification, in my opinion.</p>
<p>In many instances, students don’t know the most effective techniques for studying particular subjects or don’t have the background they need to understand the content of a course. </p>
<p>Working harder but ineffectively or working harder when the material is beyond your comprehension does not lead to success.</p>
<p>“There is no difficult classes in American HS, none, zero.” - I beg to differ. </p>
<p>It seems like the kids who survive IB at our hs are well prepared for even the toughest colleges. Some of them comment that college seems easier than hs. Certainly this is not the typical American hs experience, but difficult classes do exist.</p>
<p>MiamiDAP: I disagree. Of the students who took Japanese at my HS, all but one found Japanese to be disappointing (lack of challenge and teaching quality) in college, including at some fairly highly-ranked schools. The only one who actually found college-level Japanese to be harder and better taught went to Georgetown. Our Japanese classes were rigorous, and it was not uncommon for students to fail–although if you gave it your all, you got a phenomenal education.</p>
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<p>I’m talking about being at the grading mercy of a TA too dim to understand a student’s work (which can happen in the Humanities).</p>
<p>I agree with ordinarylives that there are students who are just not capable of doing college level work. I do not like picking on one school, but in California CSU Domiguez Hills comes to mind. The average admitted student there has SAT scores of about 880/1600 which goes a long way towards explaining why only 30% of students who matriculate at CSUDH ever graduates. When colleges admit students who have never demonstrated any potential to succeed in college level courses they are creating a large group of young adults who gained nothing from their college experience other than a lot of student debt.</p>
<p>Waiting too long to seek help, or not seeking help at all.</p>
<p>Falling further and further behind to the point of being unable or too overwhelmed to catch up.</p>
<p>Immaturity.</p>
<p>Needs a reality check aka having unreasonable expectations. Ie - thinks everything comes easy to everyone else and shouldn’t have to work so much harder and still not do as well as “everyone”. Or thinks he is studying/working so hard when in fact is not even close to doing so. Thinks should love every class in college. </p>
<p>Lazy.</p>
<p>Poor prioritization.</p>
<p>Homework/projects/papers on laptop . . . Facebook, IM, Email, Sports alerts, Computer Games. Or sidetracked by same when “taking notes” in class on laptop.</p>
<p>Xbox, ESPN</p>
<p>And did I say lazy?</p>