TA TALK
Web-based newsletter of TA/AI issues for
The University of Texas at Austin

Welcome to TA TALK! TA TALK is an on-line publication of the Center for Teaching Effectiveness in the Division of Instructional Innovation and Assessment at UT. Its goal is to provide timely information for TAs and AIs regarding teaching, learning, and university resources. If this is the first edition of TA TALK that you've received and you'd like to receive future installments, you may subscribe to receive three electronic copies of TA TALK each semester by following the directions at the end of the newsletter.

Please e-mail me, Joanne Holladay, (jholladay@mail.utexas.edu) if you have suggestions for topics for future articles, or if you would like to contribute an article yourself. Thanks to Stephanie Corliss and Steve Knoll for their help with Web design and HTML.

Your Role in Preparing Students for Finals: You Can Still Make a Difference

You may be asking yourself at this late date in the semester, "What can I possibly do to further prepare my students to do well on their final exam or project? Haven’t they (and I) done all they can at this point? If they don’t know it now, will they ever know it?" Especially if the exam is cumulative and students don’t have a strong "track record" to date, you and they may be feeling especially pessimistic.

There are still ways that you as the TA or AI can guide your students to their preparation level and enabling them to do their best possible jobs on exams. Consider how to implement these ideas in your final class meetings, review sessions and office hours prior to those last exams.

1. Help students assess their current preparation level and determine what remains to be done. A pre-exam survey will help get a "snapshot" of the tasks to do, and also should also help them balance their time with studying they have for other classes. Of course, students tend to underestimate the amount of time needed for high-quality studying. A pre-exam survey will help them plot out a calendar and plan specific activities to improve (or maintain) their learning as indicated on previous tests.



2. What activities will give students the most "bang for the buck" as they prepare for exams? (The answers to this question may be different depending on the student, and naturally, on the course.) Group study? Looking up and working through old practice tests? Doing practice problems? Some combination of these? It is ultimately much more beneficial for students to identify specific activities that require them to use or apply the material learned. For example, instead of reviewing lecture notes, students should generate possible test questions from each set of notes and see if they can answer them. If they have an essay test, they should practice outlining or writing answers to sample questions. The more students vary their test preparation activities, the more likely they are to be flexible in addressing the challenges of the test.



3. Plan your test review sessions to be as interactive as possible. Instead of doing the usual "Q and A", organize the material in a more meaningful way. For example, you could send out an outline of major topics in advance and have students e-mail their questions to you ahead of time. Compile a list of the best questions and ask students to prepare answers prior to the session. Direct these questions to the students in the review before answering them yourself. You should have some "experts" in the audience when it’s time to review.
   
   If students omitted some important questions, guide them to design questions for remaining topics. The practice in writing their own questions and answering them will be invaluable.

If you want more information on organizing effective review sessions, the December 2001 Issue of TA TALK contains more in-depth recommendations. http://www.utexas.edu/academic/cte/tatalk/tatalk-n6.html

Finally, be alert and help students deal with stress and test anxiety. Test anxiety occurs when students engage in negative self-statements such as "There’s no way I can pass this test." or "If I don’t make an ‘A’ on this test I won’t get into med school." Such "all or none" statements tend to lead to psychological and sometimes physical signs of anxiety. A psychological sign would be an inability to concentrate on the exam. A physical sign could be rapid heart rate or even nausea. If you’re aware of students experiencing these symptoms, be sure to refer them to the UT Learning Center for advising, (http://www.utexas.edu/student/utlc/)
or to the Counseling and Mental Health Center (http://www.utexas.edu/student/cmhc/) for those with more generalized anxiety symptoms.

For information on final exams policies and procedures, see:
www.utexas.edu/student/registrar/schedules/spring/fr-final.html#fin-pol

Keeping Your Own Stress "In Check"

Finals are stressful for graduate students as well! The December 2001 issue of TA TALK addresses a number of effective ways to recognize and deal wih stress. http://www.utexas.edu/academic/cte/tatalk/tatalk-n6.html

In addition to coping with stress during the exam period, many of us find that the holidays themselves can be stressful. You may find yourself experiencing stress in being with family, fulfilling traditional obligations, or catching up on research that you may have been putting off. Remember to define what relaxation means to you and make time for those activities. You’ve earned it!

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